[BigFish]

My greatest Thanksgiving memory is a very emotional one for me, especially over the past three Thanksgivings....It was a Thanksgiving Day a long time ago when I was just a little guy, maybe 25 or 30 years ago. My family had just sat down to the table for Thanksgiving dinner. I, traditionally, sat right next to my Dad on his left. That was where I always sat. Well, we had begun to eat, you know, all the dishes and food being passed around the table when my Dad says to everyone, "Be careful of the gravy boat, it is hot and very slippery so be careful". Now, my Dad you gotta understand was a great father, and when he said something, you darn well did it without any commentary. Well, the food was flying around the table and everyone was making the usual Thanksgiving Day chatter when all of a sudden there was a huge crash at the end of the table and there was gravy everywhere......you could have heard a feather hit the floor....we all looked at the mess and did not say a single word as it had been my Dad who had the gravy boat slip from his hand and smash in the middle of the table. Well he was cursing a little bit as we all do when we have something like that happen, and after a few seconds of awkward silence, we all started to laugh at the fact that it was my Dad that had warned us about the slippery gravy boat and it turned out to be him who let it slip from his grasp. We cleaned up the gravy mess and the gravy boat, that was part of my Mom's good China set, was all chipped along the rim of the base of the gravy boat. Well, one of us made the comment, "Boy, I am glad that it wasn't me that dropped the gravy boat", and we all had a good laugh about that, even my Dad because we all knew that if it had been one of us who dropped the gravy boat, my Dad would have gone right through the roof. That Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be the most memorable Thanksgiving dinner my family ever had because as we laughed and joked about the dropped and chipped gravy boat my Dad joked that someday, after he was gone, we would all remember the day he dropped the gravy boat and laugh about it. Every Thanksgiving after that, at the dinner table, that gravy boat would get used and passed around, and we would all laugh and remember the day my Dad had dropped it and we would all say that the gravy boat would be his legacy, a way for us to remember him after he was gone, and this went on year after year after year for about 25 years, so it turned out to be kind of a family tradition. Well....sadly the day did come when my Dad was gone,....and that first Thansgiving without him was fast approaching, and that gravy boat came up in conversation a few days before Thanksgiving. It was a very emotional time for my family, as you can imagine. I mentioned to my Mom that we should make sure that we use the gravy boat just as we had every year, chipped and all, just as we always had. My Mom got very emotional and it seemed as though it might be too difficult for her to have to look at the gravy boat that day, so I just kind of let it go, as much as I really wanted the gravy boat on the table to remember my Dad and all of those great Thanksgiving dinners that we had together, I did not want to upset my Mom. We all showed up that Thanksgiving day, just as we always had, and it was very difficult because for the first time ever, my Dad was not going to be there. I had prepped the turkey, which used to be my Dad's job, and slipped it into the oven, which used to be my Dad's job, and mashed the potatos, which used to be my dad's job, and most difficult of all....I tried my best to make my Dad's home made gravy, which just always seemed to give our Thanksgiving dinner it's flavor, and I must admit, it came out pretty good. Not quite like my Dad's, but not too bad. So we all sat down to have the first Thanksgiving dinner without my Dad, and on the table, right in the spot where it had dropped all those years ago, sat the chipped gravy boat! We all noticed it, kind of afraid to mention it though, for fear of up setting my Mom. As we began to pass the food.....and the gravy we could not help but mention the day that my Dad let the gravy boat slip from his hands, all those Thanksgiving days ago......and we laughed about it, just as my Dad had said we would, and I think we all shed a few tears that day at dinner also, wiping them away quickly so that nobody would see them. I guess my Mom could not help but put the gravy boat out on the table, as difficult as it was for her, I think she knew how much that gravy boat meant to all of us. Today, we will gather at my Mom's house again, the third Thanksgiving without my Dad, and it is still a little tough to be without him, but we will have Thanksgiving dinner, and be thankful for so many things, not the least of which is the simple fact that we were fortunate enough to have had my Dad with us for so many Thanksgivings.

Happy Thanksgiving All.