From my original article that appears on Love What Matters website/Facebook page:
I was grocery shopping with my husband the other day, and we came upon this beautiful colorful display of tiny onions. It made me think of my grandfather, known fondly as ‘Papa,’ who began the tradition of ‘turkey of the year’ in our family.
Thanksgiving was a really big deal in our family. It was always held at Nana and Papa’s home. We looked forward to it every November—I just adored my Nana’s stuffing that spilled out of the great big turkey and the amazing mountains of mashed potatoes that would appear from the kitchen.
When I was about six years old, Papa had made a big casserole of creamed onions with bacon, cheese, and breadcrumbs on the top. He very proudly brought the dish in to dinner when it was time to eat that Thanksgiving afternoon.
Unfortunately he tripped and spilled the entire contents of the dish all over the brand new chocolate brown wall-to-wall carpeting that had been recently installed in the dining room (remember, this was 1978!).
As he sat there covered in cream and onion mess and Nana flew to his side to make sure he didn’t get burned, he just laughed and said, ‘I feel like such a turkey.’
For the rest of the evening after we cleaned him up, we all shared stories of how we had made mistakes or had something embarrassing happened to us.
My cousin admitted he had mistakenly sprayed air freshener instead of hairspray on his hair. I told Papa how I had once done three cartwheels in a row at recess and ended up splitting my pants.
My father roared with laughter, telling us about the time he had woken up extra early on his day off and waltzed into his retail job, only to realize he had somehow lost a day. The foibles went on and on, late into the evening.
In the end, Papa was encouraged by the loving family he helped create, and we all came to the conclusion that our silly shenanigans of the past were fun to share and have a laugh at ourselves.
We carried on the tradition and he usually made us a small trophy to commemorate the funniest story, which we vote on in all sincerity. Last year’s trophy, made by my daughters, was an incredibly tacky golden chicken statue, encrusted with jewels.
It was won by my eldest child’s best friend, who needed a place to be for the holiday. We came away from that dinner with his laughter and sweet comment of ‘I’ve never won an award before, and now I can rest easy knowing I’ve blown away my grandfather’s expectations of me!’
The love, laughter, and sarcasm of the original turkey of the year competition is still going strong. It is a tradition that we have kept up for 46 years, and I can’t wait for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner, because I am most certainly going to be the winner!”
For our best stories, subscribe to Living Better by Love What Matters: https://www.lovewhatmatters.com/newsletter/
Shared with permission via Antonia DeZutti
Sojourne 