It’s November and all of our girls and grandkids and son in laws and Ron’s Dad and I are planning for German Thanksgiving which is taking place on Nov. 18, at our house in Warsaw. When we were a young couple, Ron and I sometimes had two thanksgiving dinners. One would be at his parents’ house in Oak Lawn and one would be either in Dolton at my parents’ house or at my Aunt Carol’s house in South Holland. I don’t know how we did it, and when we had Elizabeth, we brought her with us and then when we had Michelle we brought her with us. Then we moved to Michigan and would drive seven and a half hours, sometimes on Thanksgiving Day, to be with the families in Chicago.
Ron’s mom was an excellent accomplished cook. She made German, French and American dishes and really outdid herself on holidays. So our girls grew up eating many different types of food. Ron learned to make the traditional German dishes from his mom. So this year he is making sauerbraten, bread dumplings, red cabbage and beet salad. Michelle is making a flour-less chocolate torte and Savoy cabbage (Ron’s recipe). Ron’s mom use to make tortes especially chocolate ones. I am making pecan pie, and Ron will make his cranberry apple pie. Elizabeth is making 7 layer salad and Lisa will probably make deviled eggs.
Ron’s father’s 97th birthday is Nov. 15th, which is also the anniversary of our first date (Ron never remembers). We are bringing him from his apartment at Sunrise on the Scioto in Upper Arlington. We are combining Papa’s birthday party and our Thanksgiving celebration. Our granddaughter, Jazmyn, is making a Happy Birthday poster. She and Lisa will decorate with balloons and streamers.
Even our son in laws, who had never eaten most of these German dishes before they joined our family, are excited about German Thanksgiving. All of the girls are going to want leftovers.
This year we have two little girls added this year to our family. Addelyn, aged 9 months, is Elizabeth’s fifth child and Ayla, 8 months old, is Michelle’s first child. Both of them will be in high chairs at our celebration. We still have Ron’s wooden high chair for one of them. It will be a full house with four generations of our growing family, full of laughter, yummy sounds and children’s voices. Throughout my life, Thanksgiving Day has always been a big celebration with family and delicious food. Many times we had dinners with 24 or more people of all ages attending. Since Ron joined my family, he has experienced the bigger group, very different from his parents and him alone.
Now that Michelle lives further away in Kentucky, we really cherish this special time, we can be together to eat and catch up and have fun. We usually play silly games in the house while the grandsons and Ron play outside the house. We will come together and have coffee and dessert before the girls pick up the children, pack up some leftovers, and go home, happy and full of German Thanksgiving food.
Ron’s Corner:
In case you haven’t guessed November 18th was picked out of convenience. When you have grown children with families it’s not always easy to get them in the same place at the same time. We choose sauerbraten because it’s one of dad’s favorite dishes and all of my girls (Crystal included) love it. For those not familiar, it’s a sweet-sour German pot roast. The meat is marinated in a vinegar/spice mixture for about four days prior to cooking. It is finished with a generous amount of Ginger Snaps (yes the cookies). If you get a chance, try it.
Today is November 20th, and I am pleased to report that German Thanksgiving went off as planned. Our family got together without incident. After giving thanks we ate. Kids played, babies crawled and enjoyed the commotion, adults talked. At the end, a lot of very full and happy people departed as planned. Dad couldn’t get over the effort and love in our family. Sometimes we have to remind him that it is his family too and started with him, Mimi and of course Crystal’s parents. As Crystal said, Mimi was a wonderful cook. One of my main motivations for learning how to cook is that, the thought of living without some of the specialty dishes for which she was known was too painful to consider. In an effort to keep traditions alive, I am working on a cook book to preserve many of our family’s favorites. There will be more details in upcoming posts.
Some might say that celebrating Thanksgiving on the 18th was silly. Those same people probably say bah humbug around Christmas. However, in one sense I agree with them. We are all so fortunate and have so many blessings that celebrating on the 18th or even on Thanksgiving Day is silly. We need to be giving thanks every day.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
November 18th 2017 or German Thanksgiving / Dad’s 97th B-day party