Thanksgiving Hopkins style

Here's our Thanksgiving table - notice the exercise stuff on the right and that's a bag with frames on the left. The chairs don't all match and there's a church folding chair (we didn't steal it, they sold some a few years ago) just in case we need it. That's Thanksgiving Hopkins style!

Next is a great tradition - the story fork. It's fashioned after the native american tradition of the talking stick. After the meal everyone is required to stay around the table. I bring out my basket of ribbon and the story fork. We pass the fork around the table and each in turn ties a ribbon on the fork as they tell a story.

As you can see there are lots of stories on the fork. There are ribbons tied by loved ones who have passed away and ribbons tied with little hands that have grown big and strong. The fork is almost covered and we keep adding stories year by year. This year my story is about my mom.

She was divorced with 4 very small children and no support from our father. My grandparents helped a lot but I remember that we had very little money. I don't ever remember worrying about it, we were happy. On cold mornings mom would turn on the oven, open it and we would run to stand in front of the heat to put our clothes on. We were poor. Mom was a secretary and drove a very old car that often didn't start and when it did, moved slowly. One day mom told me that on the way to work police had set up a speed trap and nearly everyone got a ticket. She said we were so blessed to have that old car that wouldn't go fast or she would have had to pay for a ticket and we didn't have money for that. She was seriously thrilled - She chose to live a life of faith, seeing everything as a blessing. That's our heritage, faith and trust in the Lord.

This turkey is found at every plate - we've made them for years - a real Hopkins tradition. They have changed a bit. The feet used to be chocolate stars but it's hard to find them so we substitute chocolate covered pretzels. The tail used to be mothers cookies that had the curvy edges that looked more like feathers than these, but we adjust. We Hopkins are very flexible...

We miss the Hopkins who won't be with us this year - we'll be thinking of you. Have a wonderful - family filled Thanksgiving day!