2010--My niece Allie had spent the night at our house. As part of my scripture study that morning I was playing the Thanksgiving hymns (91-95) on the piano. She asked me if I was playing Thanksgiving songs. She said she thought there were some in the Children's Songbook, but I said there weren't. I think sometime that morning I also attempted to play Vince Guaraldi's "Thanksgiving Theme" from my Peanuts songbook. We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and when it was over, Allie wanted to watch the other special on the DVD, "The Mayflower Voyagers." She took a bath, and when she got out she told me, "I was so selfish in the tub," and then said something that had absolutely nothing to do with being selfish. I asked her how that made her selfish. She said something like "'Cause I flipped my head back." I remember remarking to my mom that I didn't think she knew what selfish meant! A little later I found her sitting at the piano, with my Peanuts book open to the song "Christmas is Coming." I asked her what she was doing, since I knew she couldn't play it or read music and probably didn't even know the song. Then we carried pies out to the car, and I remember hoping I didn't slip on the ice while I was carrying them. It was a very cold Thanksgiving. As we were driving to my grandparents' house on I-15, my mom said we should sing "Over the River and Through the Woods." We sang it, and then the conversation turned to how "Jingle Bells" was originally written as a Thanksgiving song. So we sang "Jingle Bells." My sister and her husband met us at my grandparents' house. We were standing in the kitchen and I told her about Allie's selfish remark, and she laughed. My aunt Debbie and her daughter Renee arrived, and Debbie pointed me out to Renee, since she hadn't seen me since I'd been home from my mission, and she was surprised. When it was time for dinner, I ended up sitting away from the rest of my immediate family, at the table in the kitchen instead of the table in the living room. I think my aunt Sue was the one closest to me. I think there were also introductions about my cousin's girlfriend Lisa and my brother-in-law Matt. After dinner, Renee was talking to me about how she was trying to quit smoking, and there was some mention of the Stop Smoking Workshop, which I was familiar with from my mission. [Rhiannon talked a lot about Justin Bieber. My mom had pictures of Allie she was giving out. Debbie took one (I think to be polite), and said she'd show it to Brennon.] Then later these Gildersleeves were leaving, and I said "Bye Max!" to Renee's son. He asked how I knew his name. On our way home, my dad honked at a motor home that nearly cut us off. That night I wanted to tidy up some in my dad's work room, but I got distracted when I saw the cabinet full of old issues of Consumer Reports. I pulled them out to read the back page, the only entertaining part of the whole magazine. There was one that was a picture of a box of candy canes, describing the flavors as things such as "watermelon," "lemon," and "green." Another one was an ad for a product with pictures of birds. It said that a particular bird was the state bird of "over 75 U.S. states."
2009--That morning I made some spiced cider before the other elders, Elder Canova and Elder Robinson, came to pick us up to do grocery shopping. When they called to tell us they had arrived, we invited them in for some cider. The car needed to be filled up, so we dropped off Elder Tamblyn and Elder Canova at Rosauer's grocery store while Elder Robinson and I went to the gas station across the street, since I was going home in four days and Elder Robinson expected to be transferred. After we were done we went to Rosauer's parking lot. I remarked about going inside to meet up with them, but Elder Robinson objected because he didn't like the idea of being around so many people. So we talked about missionaries--about district leaders being domineering and judgmental, about one Elder Pulver who had nagged me the whole time I was on exchanges with him (and Elder Robinson said that Elder Pulver had told him it was because he was stressed and getting all the nagging from his trainer, Elder Hinebaugh), and about my evil companion Elder LaPratt, who had played a prank on me by changing our entry for the mission president to his number, so he could call and pretend to be President Palmer. When I told this story Elder Robinson made a comment I didn't find offensive, then apologized for his language. But since I'm sheltered, what he said might have been offensive and I just don't know it, so I won't repeat it. Then our district went to the Robinsons', a family in our ward, for Thanksgiving dinner, since Elder Robinson's father and our Brother Robinson were cousins. One Robinson relative was telling us about how in his mission the elders would determine their ties' length by how much longer they had on their mission--the longer the tie, the longer the time left. Somehow this led to them saying that my tie would be really short. We were playing the game Bang!--as we usually did on P-days--and Elder Masten made some gay remark, and Sister Robinson cautioned him, since one of the relatives present was gay. Later that day Elder Tamblyn and I went to Bishop Palmer's house. Other people there were the Bartschis, whom we had had dinner with earlier in the week, and the Smiths, who lived out of town. I had some pie, since I had told the bishop and his wife I wanted pecan pie (but they were going to have it anyway), but Elder Tamblyn didn't have any since he had chronic stomach problems and we still had another dinner to go to. Sister Smith asked if Elder Tamblyn was the elder who had lost all the weight, but we explained it was me. Then we went to dinner with Michael Piquet and his family--his future wife Amy, and their kids Nash and Laren. After the actual meal Amy told us we didn't have a choice not to eat the pumpkin pie she'd made. After we were done eating I pulled out my scriptures and found the scripture in Proverbs about the full soul loathing every sweet thing. Since it was my last time there, we took pictures:
After we got home, we had our "landlord," Mr. Littlejohn, fix our heater. I pulled out the cider I had made earlier. Elder Tamblyn said he had been praying hard at the Piquets' that his stomach would last. We were supposed to be planning that night. I looked through the area book to make sure all was clean before I left. Elder Tamblyn was getting annoyed that I told him the decisions were up to him for the next week, since I wouldn't be there. Then he went to bed because he wasn't feeling well.
2008--That morning Elder Love and I stayed in our pajamas for study. Our companion study was Thanksgiving. After study we were permitted to do what we wanted. I made spiced cider, and he made cinnamon "rolls" from a can. I took pine-like branches from a service project a week earlier to attempt to make a wreath, since the Christmas season started the next day, and I didn't know when else I would be able to do it. It didn't work out too well; the branches were loosely tied together, but mainly just pinned to the wall, like this:
Elder Love pulled out some small ornaments he said we would be able to put on them, but we never did. While Elder Love was taking a shower, I turned on my Hymns CDs to listen to the Thanksgiving hymns. I did 250 situps--two sets of 100 and one of 50--thus clearing a queue of situps I needed to do for a year and a half. I wanted to take a bath, since we had time that morning, but the water ended up being too cold. Then we went to dinner at the Galbreaths', who live a mile or two out of Ritzville. This was Dale Galbreath's home, but both of his Ritzville sons were there, Daniel, the branch president, and John, another member of the branch. They also had some friends there from the Colville stake. Sister Galbreath had a very strange squash decoration. Before dinner we sat in their living room and went around to say what we were thankful for. We all got a good laugh when it was John Galbreath's three-year-old daughter Taylor's turn. I remember her saying she was thankful for her dad, but she was climbing all over the chair while she was saying what she was thankful for. The dinner included some pickles that a member of the branch, Rexa Moffett, had made. They were very green. Sister Galbreath said they were good for Christmas, and I said they were also good for St. Patrick's Day. Elder Love showed a promotional video we had advertising a "Nativities from Around the World" event in Spokane, and the Colville members seemed intrigued, but I think the Colville stake did their own, separate from that of the five Spokane stakes. Then we drove back to Ritzville, and I remember seeing at one of the houses out in the country the "Smoking Bus," a peculiar vehicle we had noticed in town that had the words "Nicotine Express" written on the side. Then we went to a recent convert/part-member family's house for more dinner. The Johnsons had visiting family, such as Denise's mom, who was the nonmember sister of a convert in the Davenport branch, and Denise's dad with his crazy wife. Everyone had already eaten, but Denise's mom talked with us while we ate. I remember there were two versions of one salad, one with shrimp and one without. After dinner we washed dishes, and I didn't know that the thing with holes in it actually stopped the drain; I thought it just strained draining water. Denise's stepmom reproved other members of the family, that we were guests and we were doing dishes. Before we left I asked her if she was related to a Kaylie Stubbs in Spokane, because she looked just like her. Then we went home and had to do our weekly planning at 6:00.2007--I remember surprisingly little about this Thanksgiving. I wore a red shirt and a turkey tie. I remember being at my grandparents' house, and there being discussion to their friend Scott Grow that I was leaving on my mission the following week. I took my crutches to their house because of my sprained ankle, but at home I discovered I didn't need them anymore. Susanne and Allie put up their Christmas tree in their apartment, but I didn't go see it.
2006--My parents were already in Fillmore because my dad's mom had died a few weeks earlier, so all the kids were going through stuff at the house. I went down there with my sister and Allie, but before we went, we stopped at Winegar's. I remember feeling bad for the people who had to work on Thanksgiving. We were in the cracker aisle to get stuff for the car ride for Allie, and there were some insect-shaped crackers she said her preschool teacher Miss Sue had. So we got those. We took a portable DVD player, and I brought A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,
which I know we watched at some point in the day. My aunt Peggy had brought a chocolate cake, which I thought was weird with all the Thanksgiving pies, but that didn't stop me from having some. I remember it being crowded in the house, so I ate on the swing in the backyard by myself, wearing my BYU hoodie. That day we went through a lot of outdated clothing, such as weird wigs,
ghastly glasses, 
strange scarfs, 
and extra-somber sunglasses.
I also remember there being something said that the men weren't allowed to look at the bag full of bras. We also did puzzles, and one of the puzzles had pictures of bugs, including a spider. I started singing the line "The spiders think you're very cute" from Corpse Bride, and Allie (who was 3) emphatically said, "The spiders think I'm NOT very cute!" My little cousin Alex (who was 5) said something like "Spiders are gross."
2005--The Deseret News always does a special section on Thanksgiving that lists all of the holiday specials for the next month, as well as a feature article. This year I saw that this section had a big picture of Charlie Brown with his little tree and Violet and Lucy mocking. This picture had a bright red background. The article was commemorating the 40th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I wore my typical red shirt and turkey tie, and David and I took Allie (who was 2) and Preston (who was 1) to Hatch Park (although back then it might have still been called North Salt Lake Park--I can't remember). There was a fair amount of other people there. I remember being near another dad and wondering what he thought of me wearing a tie to the park. When we got home, I remember being impressed that TV Land was actually showing Thanksgiving episodes on Thanksgiving, something they hadn't done before. I know they showed the Thanksgiving episode of Bewitched, but I can't remember if I watched it since I had my own copy. I went to my grandparents' house with my mom. We went before everyone else in our family, and we took Allie with us. I remember telling my mom about the Thanksgiving episodes for the imaginary TV shows I invented. Allie fell asleep in the car, so we took her in and laid her on the reclining love seat thing. Then we set up for dinner, and we moved that seat while Allie was still sleeping on it, and she didn't wake up. After dinner I remember taking her on a walk. I started singing "Augustus Gloop" from the then-new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, which Allie liked. She started singing along. I got to the part that's just instrumental and started humming. She started humming too, only she had no concept of tune, and I found it completely adorable.
2004--We were in Fillmore this year, and we ate at the cabin-like American Legion hall, as we were accustomed. My family went early and we put green coverings on the tables. There weren't that many of our family there. I remember discussing my cousin Angie's singing talent. That evening I helped pull down some Christmas decorations for my grandma, including a very poky tree made out of pine cones and such, and getting a sliver. My uncle and my grandma said that was normal. On our way home we stopped in Provo to pick up David and Ya-ping. I remember sitting outside their apartment in the Suburban, and I was quietly humming the opening theme to the strange pilot episode of The Munsters. My sister heard me at a very strange part of the song, and made fun of me. Then I think once we were home, I ate apple pie ice cream while watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
2003--I wore a red shirt and a red tie (I didn't have a turkey tie yet) and red wool socks. We were in Fillmore, and that morning they took pictures of my grandpa, dad, sister, and niece. I remember my grandparents talking about watching the Macy's parade on TV. My brother turned it on, but it mostly showed performances, and not much of the parade itself. My grandma asked if we were watching the parade, but my brother told her about how they weren't actually showing the parade. We went to the Legion Hall to set up. The city of Fillmore had put up a big Christmassy panel sign that said "Welcome" on it for when Santa would be visiting the following day. It had white Christmas lights sticking through little holes, and some of my little cousins went and pulled them out. So I begrudgingly went and pushed them back in. While I was doing this, my uncle John decided to turn on a CD he found accompanying a stereo on one of the fireplaces. I don't know if it was in it or just next to it. The CD started with a creepy little girl voice doing some scary narration, including talking about little kids in their beds "for fear that the devil would chop off their heads." I found this quite disturbing. The CD was some death metal thing someone had probably left after Halloween. John was also putting out some paper decorations he'd gotten from my grandparents. I objected to him putting out the Halloween ones along with the Thanksgiving ones--I don't think he realized the difference. For some reason we drove back to my grandparents' house with my aunt Michelle, and I wanted to listen to the two Thanksgiving songs on my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD, "Charlie's Blues" and "Thanksgiving Theme." Then we went back to the Legion Hall, where everyone arrived. I hadn't seen my aunt Peggy in a long time and I thought she looked different. I remember my cousin Terrill saying he liked my tie. We all gathered around the "Welcome" sign and took pictures. Someone brought a turkey piñata, which we grandkids tried to break. I remember there being a problem when it came time to take down the rope, which was tied to a beam. They tried to pull on it but it seemed like it was putting a lot of stress on the beam. My cousin Stephen took the head and tail of the piñata, and thus pretended to be a turkey. Peggy insisted on getting everyone together around the piano to sing "Over the River and Through the Woods." As we did so, my little cousins Alex and Sarah were also "playing" the piano, so Rachae, a cousin from a different aunt, took them away from the piano. On our way home, David was shaving in the car. My sister was mad because she thought this was gross; my mom was mad because he didn't bother to shave when we were with family, but now that we had left he shaved.
2002--For some reason we took the van that belonged to my maternal grandparents to go to Fillmore to have Thanksgiving with my paternal grandparents. I don't remember why. We took the Thanksgiving newspaper with us. My sister met us in Fillmore, having gone 90 mph on her way there. This might have been the year I first tried pecan pie. We went with some of my cousins to where their grandparents lived; I don't know why. I saw a family out in their yard decorating for Christmas. They had a giant wreath in their yard--a garland in a circle shape that was as large as a person. We saw a flock of turkeys, which I thought was very fitting for Thanksgiving. When my parents and brother and I went home, a deer ran out in front of us. We barely hit it, and it broke one of the headlights, but ran off. (Keep in mind that this was in my grandparents' van.) I remember remarking that at least we were a perdiddle now for other people.
2001--This was a very snowy Thanksgiving. We brought pies, including coconut cream, to my maternal grandparents' house. I remember my cousin Jesse saying he was thankful there wasn't any school. Then we drove down to Fillmore to visit my other grandparents. Of course they had already eaten, but they pulled out leftovers. I slept in the rumpus room.
2000--We had Thanksgiving in Fillmore at the Legion Hall, as usual. This was a reunion, of sorts, with not only my grandpa's family but also his brother's family; i.e. there were a lot of my dad's cousins and my second cousins present. Someone had set the table with a unique treat by each plate, an ice cream cone with a small bag of Runts inside--intended to be a cornucopia. Apparently they had run out of cones, because some of them were only the tiny cellophane-wrapped Runts, so I made sure I sat at one with the cone. My great-uncle Ross had invited the missionaries to dinner, and cheered when they arrived. I remember when it was time to get food, I was behind them in line. I thought about telling them that my brother had left on his mission just a week earlier, but I thought it might make them jealous that he went to Taiwan and they were in Utah, so I didn't say anything. There was a sort of talent show. I was annoyed at how much of the songs were Christmas songs. One second cousin performed a song he had written. I don't know if he recorded it, but he did have a minus track for it. It was a weird song; it started off with a train whistle. The opening line was "There is nothing quite like a train at Christmas time," and included lyrics about Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus riding on the train. Weird. My cousins Krishelle and Rayce sang that medley of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and "Pine Cones and Holly Berries." All this Christmas didn't sit well with me, so I started thinking, Maybe I could create a Thanksgiving song and sing it. So I started concocting a spoof on "Jingle Bells," the lyrics of which included "Dashing through the leaves...To the house with lots of eaves, We are on our way!...Oh, rattle gourds, rattle gourds, rattle all the way," and something about "red and yellow Fords." (I could have been more at ease if I had known "Jingle Bells" was originally written as a Thanksgiving song.) I told my mom about singing, but she discouraged me. On our way home, we stopped at my maternal grandparents'. I wanted to have some pie, but my dad didn't; he didn't mind stopping just to visit. I believe my cousin Joey had made the pumpkin pie. I went upstairs to see my cousins, and they all seemed rather unenthusiastic about me being there.
1999--I woke up and went outside to get the newspaper to see if the story I had talked my mom into submitting to the Deseret News had been printed. Our paper girl, Abby Snarr, had put a miniscule "Happy Thanksgiving" card in the paper. I asked my mom what section our story would be in if it had been printed. Would it be the Family section? That was a good guess, as I looked at that section and there was our story on the front of it. The story was about the time in the 1970s when my family had the table crack on Thanksgiving and ended up eating on a ping-pong table. The News had selected ours as the best one, so we got an enormous illustration made specially for our story, of a turkey with Band-aids, people sitting at a table so high only their noses reach above it, and carving the turkey with ping-pong paddles. In fact, our story was the only one published in the Family section; the rest were published elsewhere since they were inferior. (You can read the story, sans the illustration, here. The reason the writing isn't very good is because my mom didn't take it too seriously because she didn't think it would be published, and because she let me, as an eleven-year-old, do some editing. I'm the one who put in the pointless ellipsis.) I wore a tan shirt with a red sweater vest. We drove down to Fillmore for dinner. I remember my aunt Terri coming up to me and saying something about "Do you have a story to tell us?" She had heard about our story being in the paper. I remember being in my grandparents' rumpus room with my cousin Rayce and he turned on a tape with "I'll Be Home for Christmas" on it, and I told him, "Not till tomorrow!" That night we drove back to Salt Lake and stopped at my other grandparents'. I was disappointed that Salt Lake City already had some Christmas lights up. My family turned on the Christmas radio station, which I objected to, and my brother was singing along with "The Prayer of the Children." Although now that I think about this, it's possible this last part occurred in 2002, and not 1999. I hate it when I can't remember! But I think this is right.
1998 and 1997--Unfortunately, I have some memories that do not attach themselves to a particular year. But I know they occurred during one of these years. So I am going to combine them and treat them as one Thanksgiving. For all I know, they could be all from one year, and I have none from another. We had Thanksgiving at our house, since my grandparents were on their mission. My then-uncle Wayne had given my mom some blue/purple potatoes to make mashed potatoes. So our mashed potatoes were purple. There were some extra ones that were small, so she gave them back when they arrived. My cousin Peter saw them and asked his dad, "What are those?" He replied, "Potatoes. What do they look like?" I remember thinking They look like plums. They definitely don't look like potatoes. When we sat down to dinner, I said to my cousins, "I hope I don't eat so much that my pants rip." They told me that I said that every Thanksgiving, and I was surprised. When we went around to say what we were thankful for, I remember my aunt Sue saying she was thankful for the Gospel. After dinner, I think my cousin Rhys wanted to read a Christmas story, but my mom decided to tell him a story she had read--I think in the newspaper, but I can't be sure because the Deseret News's search feature really needs to be fixed--about a boy who was allergic to potatoes, but he worshiped his older brother who loved potatoes, and this boy had an allergic reaction to potatoes on Thanksgiving, and they went to the hospital, and his sister asked why they kept doing this, and the boy said they had to have potatoes for his brother. (I'm sorry for the run-on sentence. I just didn't want to place more emphasis on this than one sentence.) My cousin Jesse spent the night. I do think Jesse spending the night and the potato story are from 1998, but I'm not sure.
1996--What's worse than not remembering when something happened? Not remembering it at all. I have no idea what happened this Thanksgiving. I know what I did in school that Tuesday, but that's beyond the scope of this post.
1995--I know we spent this Thanksgiving in Fillmore. But all I remember is driving home in our Jeep while reading and listening to The Forgotten Carols. There might also have been some talk about search lights and my sister said our cousin Todd had once said they were aliens, but this might have actually been a different car ride altogether.
1994--I remember driving home with my family and seeing all the houses with Christmas lights. I said, "People are so stupid!" and noted it wasn't Christmas yet. But my mom and my sister said, "They can put them up if they want to." This was something I hadn't thought of, and I decided I wanted to put up Christmas stuff when we got home. I asked my mom if we could, but she said we had to clean first. So I got on my hands and my knees to pick up the specks off the carpet throughout the house. (A vacuum cleaner would have been better.) My brother was watching Home Alone on TV, and I wanted to watch it too, but I wanted to put up Christmas even more. So after I finished my "cleaning," I went under the stairs to the Christmas boxes to bring up decorations one at a time. The first two were a Santa candle and a wooden Christmas tree shape, which I put on the piano. Later that evening my mom brought up an entire box of Christmas stuff, and I remember thinking just a little bit that that took the fun out of it. Today I identify more with the "People are so stupid!" sentiment and less with the "I want to put Christmas up now" sentiment.
1993--We were going around the table at my maternal grandparents' house saying what we were thankful for, but I had no idea what was going on, so when it was my turn, I told everyone how for Christmas I once got my mom a Christmas ornament. In later years I wondered why I didn't recall any reaction from anyone. The only face I remember from this incident is that of my cousin Ryan, and his face was just as if I had said something completely normal.
That's all, folks!
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