Thanksgiving with the Reed Berry Mitchell Maristany Allen Skinner Reece Families: It’s just the best. First of all, it is a lesson in Abundance: Kisha, Alita, and Gwen somehow came up with THREE [quite beautiful, I must say] turkeys: we had the first one for dinner, I carved into the second one specifically to fill my leftover dishes, and they’re probably still working on the third. Mommie made string beans; Candy brought the ham; Aunt Barbara and Uncle Willie the roast beef; Joe and Jean took care of the collard greens and and Kyle (the sweetest little boy in the universe) made cranberry sauce. Jan made pies and I made Great Aunt Cynthia’s Secret Recipe Gingerbread. There was mac-and-cheese and two kinds each of stuffing and sweet potatoes, and a coconut cake, but I don’t know whether Kisha or Alita or someone else made those.

When it was time to sink into the sofa to watch football, we watched a tape of Che quarterbacking his PeeWee team. Stephanie directed and Alita filmed everyone talking about their place in the family and their most memorable Thanksgiving.

Oh, but there was more food: we had big ol’ birthday cake for Aunt Millie—“Nana” to everyone but the Reeds—even though her Big Eight-Oh isn’t until next month. Then we also sang Happy Birthday to me, to Kisha, and to Seiku (in absentia). It reminded me of the old days when we’d always have a birthday cake for Paulie at Thanksgiving time; it felt warm and familiar, like any family tradition should, but could Kisha and Alita have remembered that, or are they both too young? I wonder if it could have been handed down not in their memories but in their very bones?