Turkey traditions

November 28, 2012
by Kendra

Community School/Life Balance

So I know I’ve talked this semester occupations that connect us to our past like laundry and care giving. While the holiday season is the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ and the ‘season of giving.’ It’s also the season of stress, travel, finals, and so many cookies it makes my head spin.

What makes this time of year manageable are the traditions and chance to connect with family. This Thanksgiving I was thankful for my family’s long line of traditions and recipes that bind us together. Each Thanksgiving we cook old recipes, swap gifts, trim trees, and sing random songs I don’t think anyone outside my gene pool would know. Possibly the most important family recipe is my great-grandmother’s ‘Mimi’s buns,’ the world’s fluffiest potato biscuit ever. Ever. Now that I’m married I have to split the holidays, and its now more than ever that I am thankful for these traditions. Even though I am far away from my family, I can knead the dough, smell the rolls baking, and be transported back to my family and all the years we have performed this task. This also allows me to create traditions with my new family. As they bite into a bun, they are connecting to my great-grandparents and becoming a part of an old, and new, tradition. To me this all goes back to social support. It doesn’t have to be the physically present kind, its in the way the air smells as the buns bake and saying my grandfather’s blessing as we sit at the table that connects me to my social support no matter the distance.

Who’d a thought buns would make the holidays better?

So as we take part in black Fridays and cyber Mondays, pack our suitcases and ship presents think back to how it used to be. Does your family have traditions or recipes you can share with your framily (friend family) or in-laws? For thousands of years culture was passed down by tradition and storytelling. Even though we have the internet and can easily look up Ina Garten’s best recipe, what about your grandmother or great-grandmother’s recipe? The holidays are many things, but what they are across all faiths is a time to appreciate and love family. So as you sit down to feast after feast this year, think back and be thankful for the people who first found that pecan pie recipe, sewed the tablecloth, and wrote the blessing. Let your heritage connect you to now and shape your future.

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