{"id":938,"date":"2017-11-09T03:57:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T03:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/?p=938"},"modified":"2019-01-16T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T17:59:50","slug":"serve-a-side-dish-of-family-stories-this-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefhguide.com\/blog\/serve-a-side-dish-of-family-stories-this-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving a Side Dish of Family Stories for Thanksgiving Dinner – or Any Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Family History Guide Activities Section<\/a>\u00a0makes it easy to include family history fun in your Thanksgiving celebration. New activities you choose to do this year just may become traditions that make Thanksgiving day more fun, meaningful, and memorable for years to come.\u00a0 Traditions are unique and varied wherever and whenever you find families celebrating a day of gratitude. What comes to your mind at the mention of this particular holiday? Is it imagining the luscious aroma of the over-stuffed turkey slowly roasting in the oven or the vision of over-stuffed family members lounging on the couch, watching a football game after the feast?<\/p>\n

\"\"Perhaps your family doesn’t have a tradition of watching football, but they participate in other entertaining family activities year after year. My husband’s family has a tradition of some members always crawling behind a couch after dinner and moaning out loud from the discomfort of over-eating! I was a bit surprised when my mother-in-law and her sister did that the first Thanksgiving I spent with them<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

after I married into the family, but I ended up joining in the fun! I will say that it was no surprise that we all over-ate because the food was heavenly. Try as I might, I can never make sausage dressing that tastes as scrumptious or looks as good as my mother-in-law’s.<\/p>\n

\n
Do you celebrate Thanksgiving with food in your corner of the world? Do memories of Thanksgiving include the traditional American meal? In an article entitled More People In Mexico Are Celebrating Thanksgiving,<\/a>\u00a0Issa Plancarte\u00a0brings up a good point that is also applicable to America and many other countries. She states, “Sometimes we forget that Mexico is a country of immigrants. The granddaughter of an Armenian who migrated Mexico via Beverly Hills\"\" tells me that her Thanksgiving menu includes Lebanese and Armenian dishes, as well as turkey and cranberries.” Issa writes that “in the resort city of Canc\u00fan, Mexican-American artist Ana Victoria Calder\u00f3n says her Thanksgiving now involves 40 people from four families from both sides\u00a0of the border,” and that Ana’s tradition has come to dictate an appetizer of scallops, and a turkey cooked by her aunt in a traditional way \u2014 “except she makes the stuffing with tamale dough.”<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

Perhaps your traditional meal is\u00a0enjoyed at a restaurant with friends and family. Maybe the festivities include many\u00a0meals and go on for days.\u00a0The typical German, Austrian or Swiss Thanksgiving celebration<\/a> (Erntedankfest<\/em>) is usually a rural harvest time\u00a0observance with church services, a parade, music, and a country fair atmosphere.\u00a0\u00a0Later in the day, there\u2019s more music, dancing, and food. In some places, there is also an evening service followed by a lantern and torch parade (Laternenumzug<\/em>) for the children \u2014 and even fireworks!\u00a0 \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\u00a0You may not be into lanterns and fireworks, but something as simple as including family recipes in your menu, or planning story-telling moments into the celebration can be creative,\u00a0 effective ways to light up Thanksgiving Day.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
From the\u00a0 Family History Guide Youth Activities page:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Y2-08 Tasty Treats:<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u00a0Entertain your family by serving some tempting dishes that your ancestral family might have eaten, such as Danish dumplings, lasagna, sauerkraut, sushi, lox and bagels, johnnycakes, smoked dried jerky, or French pastry. What items were on your ancestors\u2019 menu?<\/p>\n

Discover, preserve, and share your family recipe stories by uploading them to\u00a0FamilySearch.org\/campaign\/recipes<\/a>.\u00a0 Another idea is to create \u00a0Family Recipe Videos.<\/a> If creating a video is something you would like to try, check out these ideas from the Family History Guide\u00a0Youth Activities Page:<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\u00a0Y3-11 Make a Documentary about a Family Tradition<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Y3-13 Have a Home Movie Night<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0has even more insights and links to help you create family videos. However you decide to preserve your family recipes, stories, and Thanksgiving memories, the important thing is to do it!<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In an article entitled,\u00a0What Does Thanksgiving Smell Like,<\/a>\u00a0Dr. Anne K. Fishel writes that the “<\/span>sense of smell, more than sight, hearing or even taste, is where we store our\u00a0most cherished and vintage memories<\/a>. Once you raise that first fork full of stuffing, you begin to breathe in a memory of your childhood. As you sit at the table with your kids, parents, aunts,\u00a0cousins, and friends, the homeward journey begins.” This scenario is the perfect setting for recording the stories of the \"\"“homeward\u00a0journey.”\u00a0<\/span>Those at the table with memories that reach further into the past may share stories that could be lost if not recorded. What a gift the audio app<\/strong> on FamilySearch is to preserve them.\u00a0It’s easy – just use the steps listed in\u00a0The Family History Guide<\/a>\u00a0to help you out.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Check out the following idea<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for Thanksgiving dinner-time conversations and on-going family history interviews.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
F4-03:<\/a> The\u00a052 Stories Project<\/i>\u2014These\u00a0guidelines from FamilySearch<\/a>\u00a0help you gather, preserve and share the stories you record during a year’s time, week by week. The questions listed are also great ideas for interviewing anytime.\u00a0(See this blog post.)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Dr. Fishel suggests that if some questions “seem too intense for Thanksgiving dinner, you might just let the food generate its own stories.\u00a0 Elders at the table can be asked to remember what they ate for Thanksgiving. What is the worst food you ever had at Thanksgiving, and what was the most delicious? Is there a dish at the table that has been made for generations of your family, and do you know how that food was chosen?So many of our memories of Thanksgiving are contained in the sensual details of the smell, tastes, and look of the foods. Our stories about the foods may be just as delicious, and memorable, as the sweet potato pudding.”<\/p>\n

You may want to record your family members talking about the things for which they are grateful this\u00a0year. This is one of our dinner-time traditions in my family. We have had to limit our gratitude sharing to “one item each” in my extended Clark family which sometimes includes over sixty people at a Thanksgiving family gathering!<\/p>\n

This\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0entitled “The Family history guide’s Memories Project – your \"\"blueprint for posting and sharing family stories” gives insights into the why and how to preserve your family stories, and how to easily locate them on FamilySearch using the\u00a0\u201cAll The Stories\u201d app found in\u00a0Photos and Stories<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0 It is in the apps gallery accessed on FamilySearch. This is one of my favorite apps!<\/p>\n

It is worth the effort to share stories, listen, and record.\u00a0 Dr. Fishel states that doing so “serves as a reminder of our interconnectedness with others. Stories teach us lessons that help facilitate change, growth, and transformation, which can be very powerful.” She shares the following story to illustrate:<\/p>\n

“This will be the first Thanksgiving without my father at the table. I will certainly think of him as I eat the sweet potato pudding that he loved and declared \u201cthe best he ever had,\u201d year after year. But, more than the food,\"\" I will recall the stories he told around the table. Some were about great daring and resilience, like the time his submarine was torpedoed by Germans in the Mississippi River and he had to swim to shore, wondering if he would ever get out of America to fight the war. Some stories were about his hijinks, like the time he outfitted his army mutt with a parachute and pushed him out of a plane, an event that was captured on the front pages of the military newspaper,\u00a0Stars and Stripes<\/em>. A few years ago, when he was 90, my family and I recorded several hours of his storytelling, and this Thanksgiving I look forward to rereading the transcriptions of those stories. His stories bring him to life. When my sons and nephews retell his stories, which they do throughout the year, I know he will live on even after I do.”<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving is definitely one of the best times to learn more about your family. Planning ahead to include a side dish of family history stories while enjoying recipes from your heritage can help make this Thanksgiving celebration the best yet. Who knows, years down the road your posterity might still be cooking the same family recipe you introduced this year and sharing the story of why it became part of your Thanksgiving dinner and is now part of theirs!<\/p>\n

Postscript:\u00a0 Check these out!<\/p>\n

The Genealogy Kids Thanksgiving Family Food Game\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Family History Thanksgiving Ideas\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Family History Bingo<\/a><\/p>\n

Family History Matching Game<\/a><\/p>\n

Fun Family Activity Using Google Earth\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Thanksgiving Games for Kids and Families<\/a><\/p>\n

Recreate family photos for fun at Thanksgiving<\/a><\/p>\n

Make Family History – Great Ideas for Thanksgiving Day\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n