By: Jena Slater
My parents have always had traditions they have done throughout the years for Thanksgiving time. I always remember my mom making two pumpkin pies, a mincemeat pie, a buttermilk pie, and a pecan pie. She would have to hide some of these pies so my dad would not get into them, because he would eat some of them before they were ready.
You may be wondering why she made so many different pies. That’s where one of our traditions begins. My dad’s favorite pie is pumpkin pie, and I think it is also one of my mom’s, with pecan being a close second. My brother loves buttermilk pies, and my favorite pie is pecan. Every Thanksgiving, mom tries to make us at least one of each of our favorite flavored pies so we can all enjoy some. My dad has figured out a scheme around only eating his favorite pies during this time of the year.
Dad figured out, if he eats at least two-three pieces of everyone else’s favorite pie selections first, his pumpkin and mincemeat pies will last longer. He tries to be really sneaky but even his brother and in-laws have him figured out. We just let him play out his scheme even though we all share our pies.
Another tradition we share is focused around the location we share Thanksgiving at. This focus comes from not every one of my aunts and uncles on my dad’s side being able to travel all the way down to Nara Visa, New Mexico (near Logan, NM), where my immediate family lives, to celebrate Thanksgiving. One challenge which always comes during Thanksgiving is my dad has eight brothers and sisters. In order to incorporate as many of his family members as we can often use a rotation system.
When we first moved to the ranch, that we still currently work at, we decided to have Thanksgiving in December as a way to celebrate my dad getting hired here at AV Cattle Inc. Some of his family helped us move in then we made Thanksgiving dinner. I remember one of my Uncles, Pete, not being thrilled because he had to eat more Turkey on Christmas Eve.
We used to rotate every year, one of the three of our families would hold Thanksgiving. Either my parents, brother, and I would hold it in Nara Visa, NM, or my Aunt Pam, Uncle Pete, their two daughters, and son would hold it in San Jon, NM, or my Aunt Tina, Uncle Toby, and their three boys would hold it in Canyon, Texas. Now the three main locations are: Nara Visa, NM; Conchas, NM; and Canyon Texas.
When a lot of my cousins and my brother started graduating and moving away for college, our Thanksgiving started getting smaller. At one point the rotation started fading. When we knew my brother was going to come home for Thanksgiving while he was attending New Mexico State University (NMSU), we planned on holding it at our house.
Some of the traditional foods I always remember having when we host Thanksgiving are: smoked turkey, my Aunt Pam’s brown gravy, Stovetop Stuffing Cornbread, praline yams, fruit cocktail salad, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and sweet tea. This is the ordinary meal you can expect to find at a typical Slater Thanksgiving. Generally, everyone brings at least one or two things.
The first couple years, we would go out and play football, basketball, or find something to keep us occupied. We also played card games, the Play Station2, or Xbox, depending on the year. Annually, we always say a prayer before our meal, blessing our food and family with safe travels returning back to their homes, and thanking God for bringing us all together to enjoy spending time as a family.
A memory I always associate with Thanksgiving is one my mom always tells about Zane, my brother. We used to have a Border Collie named Boots. During one Thanksgiving, when we still lived in Monument, New Mexico, Zane went to get a pumpkin pie off the top of the fridge and dropped it. That year Boots got to enjoy his very own pie.
Ever since then, we joke that mom makes an extra pie just in case one does not turn out or one falls down so our dogs, Bear and Izzy, can split a pie. I think Thanksgiving is also Bear and Izzy Slater’s favorite time of the year, since they watch and hope that when Zane is not looking, a bite of turkey or pie filling might fall where they can test it before it goes on the table.
Another inside joke that my dad and I share is, “We can always have burgers or something beef related for our own Thanksgiving.” If you can’t tell our family is kind of split when it comes to Turkey.
Another of my favorite memories from a more recent Thanksgiving we hosted is the year I decided to pick up Reddi-wip, a.k.a. whipped cream in a can, to spray on the pies since, I preferred it over the traditional Cool Whip. We quickly found out dad had another scheme coming when he took one can and acted like he was going to spray it on his slice of pie. Then, he turned around and sprayed whipped cream all over my Aunt Pam’s face instead. So now we have to guard the Reddi-wip if we use it instead of Cool Whip. If you have not figured out, we are also kind of a prankster family.
My mom and brother can eat turkey all the time, and it takes a while for them to get burnt out. However, when it comes to my dad and me, we do not care for turkey.
We share the trait of liking smoked turkey and that’s pretty much it. We got burned out in prior years of eating plain turkey. I like some turkey but prefer it to be turkey lunchmeat. This is where the beef for Thanksgiving always comes in at, since we are a ranching family. This new tradition proposal has not happened yet, there is still a turkey bought in the end.
Last year, we started a new tradition after my brother got engaged. We travel to their house for Thanksgiving. Now, I look forward to this new tradition of getting to spend time with Zane and my sister-in-law, Bailey, during Thanksgiving as well.
