Thanksgiving Story by Brian Abate

There are three things that I associate with Thanksgiving: family, food, and football. I love all three of them so it’s one of my favorite holidays.

My family does not have many traditions but we have always gotten together at my aunt and uncle’s house on Thanksgiving and when I was little and they lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, I would go upstairs and watch football while the adults talked downstairs. Sometimes I’d throw the football around or bring my basketball and shoot around with my cousin. It was always fun to catch up because we didn’t get to spend that much time together (except when school was over during the summer.) I also usually watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I’m still hoping that someday Charlie Brown will finally be able to kick the football.

A few years ago my aunt and uncle moved from Brookline to Brooklyn. This made our commute a lot easier. My family still goes to their house for Thanksgiving.

Up until 2020, we did the same thing every year, but due to the pandemic we were not able to have a big get-together that year and it has made me appreciate our family tradition more. It was great to have Thanksgiving with the family again last year. Thankfully, even when the pandemic was at its worst, there were still football games to watch and I was still able to eat some great food on Thanksgiving.

My family has always had most of the traditional Thanksgiving foods like turkey, stuffing, cornbread, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (one of my favorites.) For dessert, I love apple pie. Everyone seems to have a specialty: my uncle makes the turkey and the corn bread, my aunt makes the mashed potatoes, and my grandma makes the sweet potatoes with marshmallows and the cranberry sauce.

The crazy thing is when I was younger, I really only liked the turkey, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. Now I love all of it, and it’s always something I start looking forward to weeks in advance.

This year, ahead of Thanksgiving George and I have decided to try out the food at different diners (George gets the Turkey Special and I try something else.) I liked the bread a lot at the Bridgeview Diner in Bay Ridge and I really liked the french fries at Happy Days Diner in Brooklyn Heights. Usually, I just get a burger when I go to a diner but I tried out a few different paninis and they were very good. Though each place was unique, I give all of them a thumbs up.

Our Thanksgiving preview has been a lot of fun and I’m starting to crave my Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully, there are only a few more weeks to go until the big day arrives. I can’t wait to eat like there’s no tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brian Abate