Talking with Mom and Dad about it, there aren't many from my childhood. Christmas you got the camera out, not Thanksgiving.
I had a few surviving photos from when I had a little instamatic and then Polaroid when I was around 10 and snapping for the fun of it and a few snapshots from Aunt Dot's Thanksgivings that she sent me actual photographs (remember those?) afterwards.
Fast forward to the little kid years and there still aren't too many. Mostly there would be a family photo in front of the already decorated Christmas tree so we could get it developed and used on the family Christmas cards we'd send out (remember those?!)
It wasn't until the move to Colorado and my omnipresent digital camera that I really have a record of the Thanksgiving festivities.
So, here's the whole extant round up, in chronological order, for the blog record. (You would be surprised how often I use this blog to figure out dates and find a certain event!)
Starting circa 1979, my little instamatic captured these
(we ate off the same china just this week)
look at the gleam on Me-Maw's wood floors!
The backs of my cousin Christie, Dad, and Mom
Aunt Laverne and Uncle Jimmy stuffing their faces across the table
Aunt Laverne in her Thanksgiving finest
Aunt Laverne and Me-Maw in her living room, waiting on everyone else to arrive
This one came to me many decades later via social media, of my brownie troop working on Thanksgiving crafts, but we're counting it. Also 1979.
In 1980 I'd received a Polaroid for my tenth birthday, no more waiting on film to be all taken up on the roll and then developed! (Didn't help the photos survive any better, as it turns out.)
I only have these two, neither of the actual feast.
mom also used the polaroid to snap this one of me that year, asleep in Me-Maw's bed (at least until I heard that loud polaroid sound!)
Then we have to fast forward to 1986 when the next Thanksgiving related photo shows up.
By this time, the festivities have transferred to Aunt Dot's house in Brenham.
Another jump: to 1989 when Mom and Dad had their first Thanksgiving at the Purple Plum house in Clear Lake
making the cornbread
Me-Maw's china set in the new dining room
the new house
Calvin and Hobbes came home for the holidays from Austin as kittens that year
and my early Christmas present was a new car (to drive back to Austin and learn stick shift on those hills)
same holiday, at Mammammy and Granddaddy's with Alicia
1990, first Thanksgiving with Bob's family. Heather just turned 2.
1992
Back at Aunt Dot's with Mom and Dad and six weeks from having Nicholas.
Aunt Dot had a Pilgrim and Indian theme
1993
Nicholas' first, at Mom and Dad's with Mammammy and Grandaddy
This year also happens to be one of the only where video was taken!
1994
A single surviving photo that, had the date not been stamped, I'd not have even remember it was taken at Thanksgiving. Nick with the Wilson's German Shepherd, Lexi
1996
No photos of the feast, but these were taken on Thanksgiving day playing with 14 month old cowgirl Sammi and rowdy not-quite-4 Nicholas.
1997
Sammi and Muna working on green beans
time out for dolly swing
dessert makings
and that Thanksgiving day Christmas card photo attempt with brand-new-to-the-family Ian, who had been adopted just the week prior. He hated cameras and made every attempt to sprint from the room when one appeared, so we rarely got good one of him.
1999
A Thanksgiving in Clear Lake this year, with Melissa, Heather, Muna, and Papa also attending.
2000
First Thanksgiving at the Post Oak house
in Navasota (the first of only two homes we've ever purchased)
This is where Thanksgiving would happen until we moved to Colorado in 2007
2001
Katy's first Thanksgiving. All we have are Christmas card photos to show for Thanksgiving
(Trying to get Ian not to bolt)
2003
2006
(last as Texas residents)
Ian had passed in August. Faith had been adopted in September, so her first with us.
Mom and Dad had moved to Colorado in 2005, so they made the trip to us for Thanksgiving and we made the trip to CO for Christmas. I had also bought the Canon digital this year, which means we will now have reliable photos from this point forward!)
2007
So, of course, our first Thanksgiving in Colorado we . . . go to Santa Fe?
Yep.
we did have an early spread that Wednesday and Pap and Mimi's
but Thanksgiving night was at a condo in Santa Fe where we stayed for the weekend
2008
First at our house in Colorado (and last for a long while)
2009
At the Saltsman's
2010
Bob and Nell have moved to Dumas which is a much closer drive than Navasota
(6.5 hours compared to 17)
So from 2009 through 2015, this is the Thanksgiving place.
This is Evan's first Thanksgiving and Nick's last living at home.
2011
Bruiser had come to live with us in the fall of this year and this was the only time we'd attempt to take him along for Thanksgiving.
We also visited Cadillac Ranch and Whataburger the day after
again with the Whataburger and Cadillac Ranch (this time with our own paint cans)
2013
this is my favorite Evan photo of all.
2014
The last Dumas Thanksgiving
Katy's last.
In spring of 2016, Bob Sr. lung surgery / cancer means they move to an assisted living facility in Amarillo that summer. Nell will be diagnosed with end-stage liver disease in the fall.
Nick will graduate college in another two weeks. Sammi is finishing up her first semester in Florida. Both make it to Dumas.
2016
At the Saltsman's
2017
At the Saltsman Cabin
This is the year I'm on crutches with the broken pelvis
from afar, I get texts of Thanksgiving kids
2018
It's been a decade. We finally have Thanksgiving at our house again.
Jake's first Thanksgiving with us.
Nick, Ali, and Olive make the trip. (Ali actually gets in that evening)
Jason proposes to Sammi Thanksgiving morning at WDW.
Also, Bob Sr. buys a corvette
2019
Our house, three years running!
Nick and Ali don't make the trip as Sammi and Jason's wedding is next month and they're coming for that and Christmas.
2020
Back at the Saltsman's for a very Covid Thanksgiving
I missed the Snoopy balloon, but I did catch the masked Rockettes!
And photos from afar again, Sammi and Jason back in Florida with Charlie
And Nick and Ali, in Texas, a day after Nick had to have surgery to rebuild his eye socket and didn't get to eat anything solid on Thanksgiving this year.
Let's hope for a better one in 2021.
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