Ask these questions this Thanksgiving
Plus, a fun printable for your table.
If you are familiar at all with my family, you know that we are lovers of family stories. “Obsessed” might be a more appropriate word. Much of our time together is spent rehashing memorable (and memorable-only-in-the-retelling) moments from the past. My relatives tell stories sitting around the dinner table, while washing dishes, while walking together—anytime, anywhere, as long as there’s time to draw breath and someone to listen.
There’s the story about my Dad stealing a jar of maraschino cherries and hiding it in the barn, sneaking out to pop the juicy mouthfuls alone, one at a time, so he didn’t have to share. And there’s the story about my uncle jumping off a swing and breaking his leg and my grandmother making him walk on it because she didn’t believe it was actually broken.1
And then there are the larger stories, the grander narrative arcs: about our family farm in Connecticut, how it has been passed down from generation to generation. The stories of my grandparents’ marriages on both sides. The stories of each of my sisters and I coming into the world, who we were as children, and who we grew to be.
As it turns out, I’m a card-carrying member of this clan, because I, too, love telling family stories.