A Christmas Dinner to Remember
by Jane Curtis
Now, my sister and I were adopted. My mother had a sister who lived in Garland (about an hour away) who had adopted three children (two boys and a girl). None of my aunt's kids were related before the adoption, but my sister and I were. Tina, my cousin was one year younger than me and my sister was two years younger. We all had blond hair and looked like stair step triplets when we all got together. It had become a tradition for the whole family to get together for Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house and Christmas at my aunt's house. My aunt was a wonderful seamstress and made us new Christmas dresses each year. All three dresses were exactly alike. Christmas pictures always had all three of us Tricia (my sister-the shortest), Tina (my cousin-in the middle), and I (the tallest) all dressed alike in our new dresses. Once my sister and I had our tree and Santa offerings at my grandmother's house we would all pile in the car and head for my aunt's house. When we got to my aunt Tinkle's house (yes, I called her Aunt Tinkle - but that is another story) we were presented with our new dresses and required to put them on for the picture taking in the front yard. It was also the routine for us to all sit down and have our meal before going to the tree to unwrap presents. My Aunt Tinkle always fixed a turkey with dressing and all the trimmings along with a ham. My grandmother always brought her famous fruit salad and my mom always brought the pecan and pumpkin pies. This particular Christmas the house was in total chaos when we arrived. My cousins had presented my Aunt Tinkle with a full grown Irish Setter they had rescued from the dog pound. They had named her Bridget and she was beautiful, but did not have house manners. The carrying of the water bowl, chasing the cat, scaring the duck, and little things like that had upset my aunt. The boys including my uncle and daddy all thought it was funny. My aunt was extremely busy in the kitchen. My sister and I got our new dresses and were told to go into Tina's bedroom and change into them. While we were taking off our clothes to put on the new dresses we heard loud yelling and a thundering foot race coming down the hall. My sister and I are in our underwear (with the ruffles pressed as usual) and our socks and red Christmas shoes, but no tops. We made the mistake of opening the door to find out what the problem was. Bridget burst through the door wearing the turkey on her head. My aunt had taken it out to baste it and turned away for just a second. Bridget stuck her head in the end of it and it was hot so she started running. The turkey was stuck to her head. We screamed and ran out of the room. She chased fast behind us howling all the way. We were running, Bridget was chasing us, my aunt was chasing Bridget, my mom was chasing my aunt, and my grandmother was laughing her head off. We ran out the front door with the parade of turkey chasers fast behind us. We were about half way down the block when the turkey finally fell off Bridget's head. She had dressing all over her face with steam rising like a turkey ghost off the top of her head. My aunt just caught up to her when Bridget grabbed the turkey in her mouth and ran as fast as she could down an alley. My mom caught up with the three of us and tried to calm us down. I kept trying to tell Mommy that the turkey was not dead yet, it had chased us. She kept patting our heads and saying she knew, but in my mind, she did not know what it was like from our point of view. I knew in my mind that turkey was not dead yet. So much commotion had caused the neighbors to all come out into their front yards to watch the race forever after known as the Christmas Cherub Race. When we all gathered at the table we joined hands for the blessing. There was silence then my grandmother giggled and gave thanks for the ham that was set before us. We all said, "Amen." |
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