Lexie’s first turkey
By Darla Bracken
On Thanksgiving Day 2003 my granddaughters Lexie and Laura were still sleeping after ‘spending the night’ with us, when I awoke at 6 AM to begin preparing our turkey for baking.
I was really hoping that my oldest granddaughter and first grandchild would wake up also so that I could introduce her to the holiday baking tradition in our family; but I did not really want to have to wake her. I wanted to show her just as my mother, Marie, had shown me and her mother, Pearl, before had shown her.
My grandparents, David and Pearl Wright, had married on November 25, 1925 and had always celebrated their anniversary at Thanksgiving with a huge turkey dinner and family get-together. They had nine children and many grandchildren so their family gatherings were always very big!
As I went ahead with the preparations, suddenly a sleepy little figure appeared beside me. It was Lexie! At seven, she was curious about just what I was doing.
“I’m fixing our turkey and you can help me!” I said, “Miss Lexie meet Mr. Turkey—Mr. Turkey meet Miss Lexie.”
She giggled and said, “Hello, Mr. Turkey!”
As we began to prepare the raw bird, which had been thawing in the refrigerator for three days, she exclaimed, “That’s gross!” Perhaps that was a typical reaction for a 21st century youngster’s first introduction to raw poultry, but she soon began to take a keen interest in the project. After we salted the inside of the turkey, we stuffed the cavity with celery stalks to add moisture and flavor. Then, we rubbed the outside with butter so that the turkey would brown evenly.
We put the heavy bird inside a plastic cooking bag (a very modern touch) and then into a pan. Finally, into the oven he went.
Next, we turned our attention to the cornbread dressing, another must-have for our holiday meal. Lexie diligently tore the slices of bread into small pieces in a large bowl. She then also crumbled the recipe of cornbread I had baked the night before into the bowl while I chopped onion and celery to add to the mix. Then I added the fragrant sage and other spices to tantalize us with the wonderful smell. Mm-mm!
It took a little explaining about the neck, gizzard, heart and liver—the giblets, and how they would be used for broth and gravy (also declared gross—maybe this wasn’t the year for this after all...).
Soon the dressing was done also and placed in the refrigerator until baking later in the morning closer to mealtime.
Just as we were finishing our project and cleaning up the kitchen (we were still the only two people in the house awake), we looked outside.
While we had been working, snow had begun to fall. What a delightful surprise! The phone rang. It was my son, Cody, Lexie’s dad calling.
Guess what! He had been helping to prepare their turkey—and it was his first time also! After wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving Day, he said goodbye and hung up.
Of course, Lexie was just busting to tell the others who were all still asleep about the snow.
“Go tell Grandpa—he won’t mind if you wake him up,” I suggested.
Grandpa was tending baby Riley, our youngest grandson so that his Mom and Dad could catch a few extra winks.
Sure enough, Grandpa and Riley were soon as awake and as excited as Lexie was. It wasn’t long before Lexie had also awakened her sister Laura and her cousin Morgan.
“My Mama always lets me play in the snow,” five-year-old Morgan boldly declared, as he marched into the kitchen.
“Well, you’d better go ask her first,” I said.
“Her said I could if I put my clothes and my shoes and my coat on,” he relayed just moments later, after having aroused his sleeping parents with news of the snow.
Needless to say, they were not quite as excited as he was.
And so it was that all three of our grandchildren ventured out to play in that rare Thanksgiving Day snow which had accumulated enough to make snowballs. We kept one of those snowballs in the freezer for months as a reminder of this special day. Families sharing moments that will last a lifetime are the BEST traditions of all!
