Ewoks, family and college roommates

This is day two of the Arkansas Women Bloggers ThanksBlogging challenge.  Today's topic - Thanksgiving memories.

Oh, there are so many Thanksgiving memories.  Some good, some not so much.

In the not so much category I give you the Thanksgiving where I broke down crying over a political disagreement with my parents; after that we don't don't talk politics much in my family anymore.  Then there was the year that I was going to meet my brother's girlfriend and on our way to dinner, her cat died.  ***sad face***  Luckily, we survived that traumatic introduction and she and my bro are now happily married.

Then there are the great memories, which thankfully far outweigh the bad.  There was the year in my youth when it snowed nearly two feet and all us cousins spent the night playing Ewoks on the hill in the backyard.   That hill was huge back then, and dangerously steep.  A couple of summers ago I realized it was only about 15-20 feet long, and gently sloping.

There was Thanksgiving in Geneva, and that year when I learned the delights of Miller Lite and cheese curds at a cabin in the wilds of Wisconsin during grad school (the first time I've ever had someone say they thought I was fooling around with a married man - that's a long and funny story that will stay untold).

And there was that year in college when my roommates came home with me and we explored lovely NH (I had to take a picture of these glossy pictures which I extracted from my actual physical photo album):

Yes, that's me in the top photo with long, long curly hair.  In fact, the three of us pictured above were probably 90% of the curly-haired population at Colby.

Anyway, I love these memories, and all the years of just eating, watching football, playing football and being together.  The thing I love most about Thanksgiving, overall, is how it's always been a hodge-podge of people - either friends or family, or a mix of the two.

Plus, there's always Stove Top stuffing (don't judge).  Some turkey, too, and some potatoes and stuff, but really, it's all about the stuffing.