A New Thanksgiving Tradition?

Anna & her cousins

 The Fagella Thanksgiving 2013 will be one for the history books.  Actually, it is one from the history books thanks to the pilgrim and Indian Thanksgiving/Aunt Lucy birthday party hosted by Uncle John and Aunt Yvonne in New York.

Anna & her aunts

The planning started early thanks to the efforts of Aunt Mary and cousin Deborah who requested that everyone come in costume.  The pilgrim and indian theme expanded to include the 1960s (in honor of the year of Aunt Lucy's birth).  Anna was thrilled to be going to a costume Thanksgiving and immediately decided she wanted to be an Indian since she was studying Native Americans in school for social studies.  Since Theresa did not make it to the after Halloween sales in time and failed to book Grandma in time, she was forced to pull out a sewing box and make Anna a costume.  After a couple of trips to JoAnn fabrics, Theresa and Anna secured the supplies and went to work.  Fortunately, all of Grandma's efforts to train Anna in sewing are paying off and Anna was able to help.  Theresa managed to put together an outfit that would have earned her a C in Home Economics class (not to mention her own Grandmother would have not approved of the stitching), but from afar it was a good costume AND it stayed together.  Anna was quite thrilled.

Joe was not such an eager participant in the costume party and faced threats and ridicule from his family, including banishment to the basement if he did not participate.  After carefully studying the party invite, it became clear that what type of Indian was not specified.  Thanks to neighbors Sue and Zaki (who are conveniently the same size as Theresa and Joe), the Indian costumes they wore were from Bangladesh (similar dress to the country of India). Let's face it, Christopher Columbus THOUGHT he was in the country of India after all, so Joe and Theresa were merely acknowledging his intended destination rather than where he ended up. 

The Pilgrims

The Thanksgiving gathering included two pilgrims, 5 Native Americans, including a current Native American with a protest sign, 5 Hippies/1960s costumes, 2 Indians, and a turkey (that would be Aunt Lucy).  As the guest of honor, Aunt Lucy donned a turkey hat and could be found gobbling around the house.  Prior to dessert, everyone got a chance to "roast" the turkey by telling their favorite Lucy story.  This was very telling in itself as Aunt Mary chimed in with the most Lucy stories while Joe seemed to have little to no memory of the early years (a definite pattern).  We also discovered that Rachel and Deborah had some very traumatic memories of staying with Aunt Lucy that involved working for food.

After eating way too much food. Anna and family headed to Long Island, where Aunt Mary served as hostess.  Anna had a great time hanging out with James and playing with Bonnie.  Aunt Mary and Aunt Loren babysat Saturday night for Anna along with Mary's grandchildren, Benjamin (5) and Little Anna (2).  Aunt Mary was brave enough to turn this into a sleepover to give all parents a break for the night.  The kids had a blast.  The next morning when Little Anna's Dad arrived, she proclaimed, "I want to stay here forever!"

The Indians

Saturday, Anna & family hit the road for Virginia.  While we certainly felt the presence of Uncle Joe over the holiday weekend, Theresa noted it on Saturday when he was not there to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game with her.  This meant that Theresa was left to listen to the game on the radio (a Michigan broadcast no less) while trying to get husband Joe into the game.  If the nail-biter of the Ohio State-Michigan game were not enough, it was followed by one of the biggest upsets in college football history when Auburn beat #1 Alabama in a bizarre last minute play.  The end result:  Ohio State is now poised to play for the national championship.  Uncle Joe would have LOVED that Saturday of football.......and was probably watching it from afar.

Refugees from the 1960s

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend.  A big thanks to Uncle John, Aunt Yvonne, and Deborah for hosting the party!  Now the question is, will there be costumes every year?