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Here is an interesting article we discovered this past week…
ENJOY!
My Family Does not Celebrate Thanksgiving
Quote from Article:
No, it’s not what you think. We are not the family that is on the sidelines of everything that boycotts the holidays as a form of resistance against colonialism, although colonialism is worthless. I got tired of eating in disposable dishes and toppers.
Growing up, Thanksgiving gave my mother the opportunity to serve an elegant meal, cooked in elegant Rena-Ware pots, and served in all the delicate dishes of Princess House that she slowly and consciously collected through years and years of demonstrations. You could not sit at the Thanksgiving table if you were not dressed properly. The men and the children ate first, followed by the mothers, who then stayed at the table for hours and hours of gossip .
Then I got married and the inevitable need to divide the holidays began. Let’s say that Thanksgiving worked very differently in my in-laws house. The dinner was held on a long table so that everyone could eat at the same time (great!) And the food was served in disposable dishes (warm). One year, we all had very little interest and we did not even bother to prepare dinner. Seriously. We ordered a prepared meal from Marie Callender and put it in the oven. When it was time to serve, we did not even bother to hide that it was bought in the store and we served directly from the plastic containers to carry. That was the last straw. This was not even Thanksgiving anymore.
“We can do better,” I told both sides of the family. Opine, making us see that with the money we had spent on that boring Marie Callender dinner, we could feed the 60 men who lived in the homeless shelter of Boyle Heights that my friend ran. And that is what we have done since then.
Each year, we ask residents what they would like to eat at Thanksgiving. Some years ask for a traditional turkey dinner with dressing. Other times, perhaps craving a bit of their traditions, they have ordered tamales, pozole and even barbecue or birria. One year they asked for barbecued meat. We always please them. It never costs us more than $ 300 to feed everyone.
It has become a beautiful tradition to which more and more family members have come together as the years go by. We make dinner in the kitchen of the shelter, we serve it, we say grace and we meet with the residents at their tables. Children move from controlling the line, to the food serving station, to the serving position while they grow. There are no cameras. There are no celebrities. Just a humble dinner and the joy of giving more.
When the residents leave the dining room to retire to their rooms, they stop and thank us. “May God give you more,” they tell us.
“God has already done it,” I reply.
Editor Note: This is a reprint translated in English from a Spanish version in La Comadre.
District Deeds Synopsis:
The article says it all. Hopefully we can all embrace the spirit of the holiday season in similar ways with those not as fortunate as ourselves.
Now for our Quote of the Week:
“Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds. – Theodore Roosevelt
Have a great week!!!
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