Thanksgiving may have been last week, but now now you can't escape the question, "How was your Thanksgiving?" for at least the first couple of days back on campus after the holidays. It wasn't until I was sharing stories of my turkey day that I realized that my family has not been adhering to the typical traditions of Thanksgiving. We manage to make the most American holiday, into our own Italian-American holiday, and it is obvious as soon as you walk into the door at my aunt's house.
You are automatically greeted with a kiss on the cheek and "How the f**k ya been?" from that one uncle. And once you have kissed every person on the cheek, whether you actually know them or not, then you can finally move on to appetizers and getting yourself a glass of vino.
There is no, "moi, moi," here, have some dignity.
Of course, we start off with a meat and cheese platter full of prosciutto, mozzarella, salami, etc. Once your plate is piled high with meat, cheese, shrimp, bruschetta, and mini skewers of caprese salad, it is time to pick out your wine.
There is always a nice selection of wine to choose from and, this year, most of it was brought back from the latest trip to Italy that was taken in our family. You do not mess around when it comes to wine.
Typically, it is women in the kitchen, but I still consider myself a child, therefore, I relinquish my kitchen duties and plop on the couch next to the men in my family. Football is on, but all of us are more focused on our plates and the littlest cousins running around.
After perfectly arranging every sliver of food on each tray and plenty of taste testing, my aunts put out the food and herd everyone into the kitchen to fill up their plates with what everyone looks forward to on Thanksgiving.
Manicotti!
Everyone rushes to fill their plate with manicotti made from a recipe that has been handed down in our family and, oh ya, we put some of that turkey and stuffing on our plate, too, but the manicotti are what you really want!
Top buttons are popping off everyone's jeans because we all ate too much and now it's time for the main family event -- watching The Godfather.
There's no better way to bond then watching home movies together. Okay, so maybe that's not our family, but at some points you could have fooled me.
That is how we do Thanksgiving and if any one asked us to change our ways we would have to reply back...
