Holidays! I love most of them

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

I will start with Valentine’s Day! It’s the day I became engaged to my husband so it will always be special because of that. This year we went to a dance and my husband and I danced away the night.

St. Paddy’s Day. Although in not Irish, I grew up in New York and had many Irish friends. One year, we marched in the parade and then had a wild party at my loft. We kept a keg of beer on the fire escape to keep it cold. So fond memories.

Memorial Day was a day to get off from school and yes, more parades. Any holiday where I had time off from school was great.

July 4th. More parades but for many years I lived on a lake and we would have July 4th parties at our house. And fireworks around the lake to top off the holiday!

Labor Day not so much because it meant going back to school.

Halloween was always fun. When I was a kid we’d map out our route for trick or treating. It’s been a few years since I costumed up for this holiday.

Now I come to my favorite. At least it’s my favorite at this time of my life. Thanksgiving. My husband and I do the cooking and our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter visit so she can have her mama’s home cooking.

I usually make about a 20 lb turkey. I make sausage and apple stuffing which I stuff in the bird. Creamed onions and creamed cauliflower along with green beans almondine are on the menu. I used to make the green bean casserole but it was too rich with all the other veggies and everyone preferred the green beans almondine.

And what’s Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes and gravy? And of course sweet potatoes. Another one I scaled back from a sweet potato casserole to baked sweet potatoes. I also serve freshly made cranberry sauce.

For dessert, I make a pumpkin and apple pie and sometimes a cheesecake. Before dinner we usually have cheese and crackers and sometimes shrimp.

I get up early to stuff the bird and get it started. We watch the Macy’s Day Parade and then the dog show while the turkey cooks.

I usually have a few guests including my sister and her husband. My sister always helped me cook. She died in October so this past Thanksgiving was the first one without her. She was greatly missed. I usually have a few more guests so we are a party of 10 or 12.

I love the leftovers and make pot pies and hot turkey sandwiches. Everyone usually gets s doggie bag as well.

And last but not least is Christmas. My husband and I used to chop a tree down and have a village under the tree. We would set up a train, skating rink, churches, shops and houses. We even had a ski lift. But as we aged, this task became too time consuming and so we bought an artificial tree, gave the village to one of our children and now have a simple Christmas.

We do go to church on Christmas Eve and that is always lovely with the singing and pageantry. And often we are invited to someone’s house for dinner.

I know I left many holidays out but these are the ones that I like most!