Celebrating Holidays at Home

Several years ago, when my youngest child was a college freshman, we acted as a surrogate family for members of her collegiate tennis team who did not live locally.
We picked up students at the airport and helped them settle into their dorm rooms. We tended the sick and homesick...did laundry... cooked meals.
Especially with students whose families were far away, we became something of a shelter at certain times. Thanksgiving break was one of those times.
Most of the kiddos traveled home for Christmas/winter break, but for fall break and Thanksgiving, they took up lodging at our address.
Students from far, far away gathered with the fam for our annual feast. We had fun discussing their traditions and our own. They were intrigued and many questions were asked about our customs.
I found myself reading about pilgrims and plymouth rock




. I seemed to have forgotten as much as I remembered and found myself pulling out the kids' storybooks and some beloved post cards.
I read up on menus, as they asked why do you have that to eat.

People cookies" otherwise known as gingerbread men, were a special hit.
The following spring I made a batch, complete with raisin eyes, to send home with the students when they departed at semester's end.
The next year, we had a foriegn exchange student take up residence with us. She was a high school senior from France whose placement had not worked out. I was proud to have info when she asked the inevitable questions about why we do what we do at Thanksgiving.
The year after that, the the baby daughter was dating a soccer player from Great Britain. He, too, asked many of the same questions and we had the answers.
This year, a certain five year old has become fascinated with all things Thanksgiving. I can hardly wait to tell her all about it/them.