We’re preparing to go to Texas and see Jim’s Nanny, parents and nearly 60 others for Thanksgiving. My first initiation was in 2002. I was used to having Thanksgiving with my family, my immediate family.
The C’s were at least 50 at the time and Jim wanted me to meet them. We’d been dating for a year and he’d already met my parents. So we showed up at the airport and his father gave me two dozen red roses. How sweet. It was a tense drive home because Jim had never really told them anything about me and all of a sudden he shows up with a girl.
Nanny had a dining room table chat with me, and told me basically that she wanted her grandson to work for a company for 50 years and get a gold watch. She wanted me to assure her that would happen. I said no, her grandson is not that kind of person and this is not the world we live in today. It must have gone well because I call her Nanny and she just sent me a birthday card to a granddaughter.
They knew it was serious and his mother grilled me for five days not about me, but about how difficult Jim is to live with! He’s methodical, normal engineer traits. I know, I said.
Thanksgiving was lovely but I was the raw meat at the table to be questioned, vetted. Jim left me alone with his family for nearly 12 hours. He says he looked into rooms from behind and thought I was doing well but did not check in.
In the meantime his cousins, who I love dearly, got in there and tried to find out whether I’d follow him if he got a job in Texas. I said that depended on what my last name was at the time. We had already settled on getting married, but needed to meet family to make sure all was OK. And while that was a joke, I did end up taking his last name because it meant so much to him.
Very few women have come into this family over the past two generations. Being subjected to the C family Thanksgiving alone is a daunting prospect. I know, because I was an object of interest and everyone wanted to ask me questions.
The last of the older and younger generation got another “fresh meat” into the fray one year and I took her under my wing, at least made her feel safe and comfortable and know that she had someone to turn to if she was unsure of the conversation.
Nanny runs great parties, that last for hours, but it’s tough for newbies. After the “initiation” we both passed, in different years and now it’s guys eat and watch football, gals cook and clean up. The minute I became a Mrs. C no males talked to me, I was just part of the cleanup crew.
Let me tell you something, guys, we host a party in the kitchen (no alcohol, it’s a dry county) that is more fun than even the Aggies’ game. Since there are so many sweets in dinner and the plethora of desserts I do snacks that stay on the kitchen table all day and that’s the place to be, when festivities start in the morning and go until 6-7 at night. One might say I’ve found my place. Teaching kids cooking has helped as well. I love this family and am privileged to have found a place in it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Dee
Cooking with Dee 