Seventeen years ago our two families spent our first Thanksgiving together here in Utah. They had just arrived after living in Germany several years.  Today the tables were turned and we made our first Thanksgiving dinner in Utah after many overseas, again with our old friends.

Since all of us are originally from the upper midwest, we share a very similar holiday menu.  They are the same dishes we ate all those years ago and the same ones we will be eating in years to come – roast turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, cranberry jiggling from the can, jello salad, brown and serve rolls, and pie, pie, pie.

  All carried in deep 9×13 dishes and served on paper plates so clean up is quick work because…

We have important stuff to do after we eat. Board games, ping pong, and…

Curling up on the couch with Charlie Brown.

"Thanksgiving is more than eating…Those early Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by 'Thanksgiving,'"

Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving