Family Pictures

Well, another holiday has come and gone. Thanksgiving was a small event with a lot of food at my house. I don't have a lot of family that I celebrate the holidays with anymore. Now, my family celebrations consist of 5-8 people depending on the holiday. Times have changed and we have with the times. I guess that it was time for a change like it or not. Holidays used to be a bigger celebration when my grandparents were alive. Two tables were necessary. We had one for the grown ups and one for the kids. Back then it was 5-6 kids and about the same number of grown ups. I loved the kid table even when I wasn't a "kid" anymore I still ate there with my cousins and my sister and brother. The grown up table had too much drama for us. We couldn't talk about kid stuff at the grown up table and we couldn't eat our food the way we wanted to without getting lectured on the right fork to eat the turkey with. Of course it was confusing with 50 forks on the table who knew at 10 years old which one to eat the salad with and the turkey with. All we knew was that a fork was a fork. But, my step grandfather he was very specific which fork was which and what to it with which. Hence, we stayed at the kid table with only one fork involved. At the grown up table they were always talking about boring things that we didn't want to hear, mostly how we had misbehaved over the month leading up to Thanksgiving. Us, kids on the other hand would talk about the fun we had misbehaving and how we tried not to get in trouble. 

The kids table was just far enough from the grown up table so we could talk in peace. Of course, we always thought we were talking quieter then we really were and the grown ups heard just about every word we said but we had fun anyway. Pie time was our favorite time. We all got to pick what kind of pie we wanted to eat and nobody ever picked that minced meat pie that my grandfather would always get and nobody would eat it but him. After the pie there was always some little treats to take home. 

Those were the days. I miss those days and wish sometimes that I could repeat them with my son. But, my grands are gone and so is the house that my grands used to live in. They wanted it, the house, to remain in the family, after they passed but as I found out after people die other people become vultures and mean and nasty and so the house unfortunately was utlimately I consider buried with them. In other words sold to someone else. So, this year and all the years since then the family, cousins, aunts, uncles haven't spoken to each other basically, the few that are left on my mom's side, and each have went different ways. We moved to a small apartment in a neighborhood that is so-so. My aunt kept her house in the small city she has lived in since her second child was born and she kept her rental property which my mom rented from her for over 30 years before she moved, my uncle moved into a senior housing complex, my sister got married and moved to an apartment with her husband, the cousins some live with their parents and a couple live on their own in the same city my aunt lives in. They all have their own holiday celebrations I would imagine. I see pictures posted on Facebook from time to time with them eating turkey or opening Christmas gifts. I see pictures of their kids and grands and it makes me a little sad. Sad, because this is what we have become as a family. 

I regret not taking pictures when we were all as one big happy family sitting around a table or tables happily talking and en\joying eachother's company. I loved taking pictures but back then didn't have a camera. Sometimes I would have an inexpensive camera, the old fashion back in the day kind, where you needed film and had to go and actually get the film developed. I was thinking about that over this past Thanksgiving when we were all stuffing our faces with turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes. Thinking about how I missed all the picture taking opportunities back in the day. I wished that we were a more picture taking family 30 years ago. I wished that we had captured all those happy moments of all the celebrations and picnics we had back then. I wished that all the pictures in my mind could be printed out and I could frame them and show them to my son. 

Of course, none of that is possible now. I have the memories that I share with him and even though we don't have the "traditional" family celebrations that we had back in the day I still want to take some pictures for him so he can tell his kids about back in the day and show them in pictures.