Like Daughter Like Mother

It seems that Natalee and I are alike in many ways, one way I hadn't even imagined. We both love family and love and want a large family. I never grew up in a large family. My mother did give me the opportunity to experience large family gatherings when we moved to Rockford, where she started a tradition of holiday meals with my extended family of cousin's. It was a wonderful gift, which I knew at the time, and now miss it very much. I remember many Thanksgiving holiday's with all my cousins at my parent's house, sometimes it would snow and we would sled down the hill in the front yard, sometimes it was just be an endless day of football games on the TV and shanangin's - but it was always fun. Unfailingly it ended up with us doing the dishes and some adult cousins playing games with my mother by drying and then hiding the good china or silver only to be found weeks later in a closet, under some towels or under long lost dress.

So as Natalee has developed this large family of imaginary brothers and sisters, I see she really wants to have a large family to belong to. Some place to have fun Sunday dinners, or share holiday meals. With this thought in mind I am brain storming for a way to celebrate this coming Thanksgiving. When we lived in The Netherlands, I belonged to an American Women's club, we celebrated Thanksgiving every year and the last two years several families got together and enjoyed the holiday that would just pass by ordinary Dutch citizen's.

With this thought in mind, I have tried to cast a wide net for other transplants that would love to spend the holiday together, but apparently there aren't any. So now we are trying to think of a way to celebrate the holiday that would be fun for a 4 year. Because come on now, having a dinner of turkey, salmon, pheasant or cornish game hen with corn pudding, green beans, rolls and pumpkin pecan pie is not appealing to a 4 year. ROFLMB at the thought.