The Porter family has celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday after my bride and myself were married back in 1968 and most families that I know have celebrated the holiday as far back as I can remember. 

The pictures that I took of our Thanksgiving Holidays after the digital age came into its own, were stored on different personal computers hard drives of which I lost a few of them not backed up and those hard drives that survived, eventually ended up on back-up storage devices; floppy disk drive, USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs and of late, external hard drive devices.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING

A brief history of our Thanksgiving Holiday (United States) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:  Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November.  It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.  As a federal and popular holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season. The event that some Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, and was attended by 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.  The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought, though the 1621 events were likely not a religious observation.

THANKSGIVING BAKED TURKEY CIRCA. 1978

Below is one of the earliest pixs I have located of my brides baked turkey in 1978 surrounded by frosted grapes, however she baked them back in the late 60s and early 1970s too.

Below is a pix which might have been her first baked turkey taken with a Polaroid camera and scanned which definitely goes way back into the early 1970s for sure:

According to the file tag, this was the first turkey that my bride baked.  The picture quality is very poor but I can make out a pan of her cornbread dressing, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, potato salad, maybe a fresh apple cake since that one was my favorite at the time.  Cranberry sauce is a must for turkey and see a plate of sliced cranberry sauce.  Can't make out what type of bread that is on the lower left in the pix.

Ok, I got side tracked just a little there, but you know I do that regularly if you have read any of my short stories.  It is just my MO aka Modus Operandi.

THANKSGIVING 2022

With the COVID-19 not as rampant as it was last year, my bride and myself decided to do a Thanksgiving meal for the immediate family and a couple guests.  I got as much prep work done ahead of time; e.g., getting the 19 plus pound Butterball turkey thawed out and salt and cayenne pepper rubbed into the pores of the skin, baked two pumpkin pies, cooked squash and onions, etc.

Our oldest Grandson Travis Lee Huneycutt who is 29 years old decided last year to go Vegan with his food and there were several dishes made just for him, being a Shepard's Pie, Apple Pie, Roasted Pecans, Quinoa & Rice and Mashed Potatoes.  Travis also brought a Vegan Tofu Turkey Roast and it was outstanding and taste like meat to me!

SAFETY FIRST

For decades, I have been doing deep fried turkeys for various family gatherings and the past few years with all the reported fires caused by the turkey fryer grease fires, I have moved the turkey fryer burner/turkey pot in the yard as an extra means of safety.  Most of the turkey fryers/pots come with a small coat hanger type apparatus to lower your turkey into the hot oil and that is no doubt the major reason since your hand is too close to the hot oil and you do get some splatter from the hot grease while slowly lowering the turkey into the hot oil and you drop the turkey into the hot oil and the splash over oil ignites!.  I solved that safety issue by making a long metal EMT rod with a hook on the end allowing you to be a couple feet away from the oil as you lower the turkey into the hot oil.

I have in the past, deep fried turkeys on the deck and carport for decades without any issues, but Murphy's Law never sleeps.

THOSE ATTENDING

Those attending our Thanksgiving dinner aka lunch were Wink and Rachel Myers, Laura, Travis and Trevor Huneycutt, Lisa, Xander and Lily Gonzales, Joyce Porter aka my bride and yours truly Bill aka Mickey Porter.  I prayed to God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and thanked Him for His many blessings for allowing us another Thanksgiving and for each and every day that He allows and to bless the food to the nourishment of our bodies!

PS:  It would have been great to have our West Coast family with us; Bill Jr., Nicole, Will and Jake.

OUR MEAL

Our meal consisted of Deep Fried Turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, potato salad, deviled eggs, collard greens, stewed cabbage, green bean casserole, green lima beans, stewed squash and onions, tossed salad, cranberry chutney, veggie casserole, Shepard's Pie (Vegan), roasted pecans (Vegan), Apple Pie (Vegan), Tofu Turkey Roast (Vegan), mashed potatoes (Vegan), quinoa & rice (vegan) fat back, pumpkin pie, walnut bread, dinner rolls, etc.

NOTE: A good many of the above recipes are on this website.

ADDITIONAL FOOD PIXS

As stated earlier, I didn't take pictures of dishes that was on another counter; my bad!

Travis send me a pix of his Tofu Turkey Roast (left over).

A FEW FAMILY PIXS TAKEN

Wink Myers, my number one Brother-in-Law on my brides side of the family.

Rachel Myers, my number 1 Sister-in-Law on my brides side of the family.

Laura Huneycutt, our oldest daughter.

Trevor Lane Huneycutt and Miss Lily.  She calls Travis and Trevor her "tall boys!"

Our oldest Grandson, Travis Lee Huneycutt!

Lisa Dianne Gonzales, our youngest daughter.

Xander McKnight Gonzales pix taken with the Obamaphone.

Xander went back for a serious "smack" of one of the turkey leg/quarters............grin if you must!

Miss Lily Danielle Gonzales, our only Grand daughter with a good grin going! 

In closing, we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving 2022.  The food and fellowship was outstanding and look forward to our next Holiday get to gather, our Lord willing of course.  Everyone helped contribute to this meal and a special Thank You!

As I mention at every opportunity on this website, "Two of the greatest Ships that ever Sailed, Friendship and Fellowship" and we did certainly sail together!

Web page published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 11-25-2022.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please take this moment to accept him by Faith into your Life, whereby Salvation will be attained.   

Ephesians 2:8 - 2:9 8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Open this link about faith in the King James Bible.