In some homes, turkey is the spotlight. We’ve all seen the commercials with the beautifully browned bird placed perfectly in the center of the Thanksgiving table. Not in our family. It’s all about the dressin’ and dumplins’.  Mom is the chicken and dressing queen and my sis is taking her rightful place as the chicken and dumpling princess (I think that would be right. Being the daughter of the queen and all.) We will have ham and turkey, but everything else pales in comparison to those two dishes. 

I blame part of this on the fact that Mom does not make chicken and dressing except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. One year, my sis thought it would be great to do something different for Christmas dinner – gumbo. Now, I love me some gumbo, but that would mean I would miss one of the two times each year that I get to savor Mom’s chicken and dressing. We compromised. Mom made dressing on Easter. That was a close call.

As I look at our Thanksgiving table, I am reminded how much it revolves around foods that Papaw Daniel would have grown in his garden. Purple hull peas and corn are our main sides. Traditions are important to me. They are little gifts from times gone by. 

I hope that you have family traditions that you can unwrap today. If  your family wasn’t big on traditions, why not start one today for yourself or your family?

I close with the blessing that the Apostle Paul opened each of his letters with – “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”