Jeeze, Julia!

♥

One week from today is Thanksgiving.

At this time next week I’ll be waking up at my sister’s house. She + Michelle {my cousin/one of my favourite people in the world} will have just put on some coffee, and the turkey will already be in the oven. The tofurkey will follow — by the way, thanks for always taking care of that stuff, guys.

After we have our first piece of Thanksgiving pumpkin bread for breakfast, and Ryan has circled ’round my sister’s house looking for interesting mushrooms, my big, huge family will start trickling in, one small group at a time.

As more people arrive, so will more food, and the house will soon be filled with a remarkably mouth-watering scent {I can almost smell it now}. Then someone — I’m not naming any names here — will pull out the traditional Smith Family Apron.

I think this apron was made by my Grandmother many, many years ago. A lot of people think it’s hideous {I find it charming}, but for some reason it gets passed around from family member to family member every single Thanksgiving. We all take turns, handing it off to the person next to us after we feel we’ve had it for an adequate amount of time. And my Uncle Paul has to have it on when he carves the turkey — whether he likes it or not {+ he doesn’t like it even one bit}.

Also of note are the famed turkey shaped salt + pepper shakers that I found one year and bought with Thanksgiving in mind. I talked these things up for months because I thought they were so cute, then conveniently misplaced them about a week before the actual event. I finally found them months later, and ever since then my sister has held on to them for me — thanks, Kristen.

Those traditions, and the Berry/Smith cousins-sleepover that happens the night before, are what makes Thanksgiving my all time favourite holiday. We’ll be down a cousin this year for the night before {Boo, Tracy!}, but that’ll make the day of festivities even more important.

Are there any special little traditions that your family has?

xx.

P.s. While poking through all of my old photos looking for a picture of the apron, I happened upon this little nugget. It’s me, as a pilgrim, in kindergarten.

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