Giving thanks in an unusual way | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Giving thanks in an unusual way | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kelly Youngblood
04/24/05
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Thanksgiving 2004 was unusual in many ways. Not only was it the first time for me to cook the dinner, but we also invited over some of my friends from ballet and their families for the meal. I opened the invitation up to anyone who did not already have plans. The night before, I spent a couple of hours getting ready. Our table is small, so we brought in our plastic table from the patio to put at one end, and put a card table at the other end. I had bought a pretty light green tablecloth that almost covered all three tables and a table runner that looked nice with it. I took some time setting the table, having to mix and match dishes because I only had five place settings in one design and eight in another. I set up a separate table for beverages and dessert. Everything was decorated nicely, down to folding the cloth napkins in a pretty way.

Two families took me up on my invitation, so for Thanksgiving dinner our guests were my in-laws, Sally and Robert; Jenna, her husband Jack and their son Jordan; and Julie, her husband Bruce, and their children Sarah and Joel.

I knew Bruce and Julie are secularly Jewish--they go to shul on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashannah, they also celebrate Christmas in a secular way. Bruce is Jewish, but it is uncertain if Julie is--her aunt or great aunt says they are but nobody really has any proof since her grandma was a Christian.

When we all sat down to eat, Julie asked "so who says the blessing?". I said my husband would (I get very nervous praying out loud in front of people, so I usually let him do it). Bruce then said "ok, you pray and then I'll pray". My husband prayed and when he was done I heard these words in Hebrew: "Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha-olam ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz". He then explained to everyone that it was a blessing especially for bread.

Julie then mentioned that there was a Sephardic tradition of throwing the bread to people once the blessing was said...so she threw the bread to Jenna. Then my mother-in-law asked for some bread and said, "oh, you can just thow it" and that made me start laughing so hard. I would never in a million years have expected she would want food thrown to her!

So my most unusual Thanksgiving ever consisted of two Christians (one a seminary student), two people who go to a New Age type church, three non-religious people, and four mostly secular Jews.

And you know what? We had a wonderful time.

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