Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's House

A Smith Family Thanksgiving

One of my happiest memories as a child was spending Thanksgiving day at my Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house in Poplar, CA.  Although, I spent almost every day at their house, Thanksgiving was even more special because there would be so many Aunts, Uncles, and cousins visiting. 

Grandma would stuff and cook the turkey early in her stand alone electric oven so it would be ready to eat by noon.

Grandma's stuffing recipe:
cornbread
white store bought bread or stale biscuits
chopped celery
giblets
chopped onion
minced garlic (optional)
couple of boiled eggs
couple of raw eggs
milk
sage
salt and pepper to taste
Boil giblets until done.  Let cool, and chop liver, heart, and gizard meat.  Remove meat from neck and chop. 
Crumble cornbread, and tear bread into small pieces.  Mix in large bowl with chopped meat, chopped boiled eggs, celery, chopped onion, water from giblets, seasoning, milk, until the right consistency and taste.  Add a couple of raw eggs to help hold stuffing together before stuffing bird and putting remainder of stuffing in pan to be cooked. 

I still make my stuffing like this but sometimes add spinach to it.

We would always have mashed potatoes, gravy, sometimes green beans and corn or some other vegetable.  We would always have pumpkin pie, always have banana pudding and sometimes we would have a cake.

Sometimes the Clay cousins (family of 9 kids), and the McKay cousins (family of 7 kids) might be there at the same time.  Aunt Betty and Uncle Bill Smith had 2 kids.  Aunt Betty and Uncle Don Smith had 4 kids.  Aunt Pat and Uncle Junior Smith had 5 kids, and my Mom and Dad had 2 kids. Grandma and Grandpa had six kids and thirty one grand kids.  The house was only two rooms, but I don't remember it being crowded at all when there was a lot of people.  Of course, I spent a lot of time outside playing with my cousins. 

Grandpa later added two bedrooms and an indoor bathroom.

We didn't have many toys, but we would play Red Rover, Red Rover, Dog Pile, Jump rope, Chinese jump rope, marbles, etc. 

It was so much fun with so many of my cousins there and the food was so good!

I am very Thankful to God for blessing me with my Grandma and Grandpa Smith, my Mom and Dad, my sister, my children, my grandchildren, my aunts and uncles, and all of my cousins that I grew up with.  I'm also Thankful for good health and all of my other cousins that I have.  I have so much to be Thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!