The Wishbone and Mom

When my Mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner, it was usually because we were not going back home to my Grandma's for dinner that year. The dinner table would be my parents, my three siblings and me. Even though we weren't hosting any guests, my Mom would pull out all of the stops anyway and it was a special day for my family.

Mom would wake up very early to get the turkey in the oven. We usually woke up to her drinking her coffee, already showered and ready for a fun day. My brother and sisters and I would plan which games we were going to play while watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Immediately following the parade, we would switch over to our Nintendo and inevitably Super Mario Bros. would become a marathon until Mom was ready to take a break from the kitchen.

Instead of lunch, Mom would serve a smorgasbord of appetizers like a vegetable tray, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, and she always had a bowl of nuts on hand to crack open. We would put all of the snacks on the table around a board game or cards. We played games like Uno and Phase Ten. She would occasionally get up to check on the bird, basting and removing the foil top.

After a beautiful dinner, it was time to clean up and I remember doing lots of the dishes. We would put the food away even though we knew that we would each take our turn pulling our favorites back out later in the evening to snack on. After dessert, of course. Mom would save packing up the turkey for last and she would be sure to save every last piece of turkey off of the bird. After Thanksgiving we would make delicious turkey sandwiches.

Once I began doing the dishes, suddenly my siblings would disappear and end up taking a nap on the sofa or in front of the TV in the living room. When we were done with all of the dishes, my Mom always surprised me. I would look up at the faucet and she had placed the wishbone there. She would tell me to let it dry out for a little bit and we would make a wish later. She always cleaned it perfectly and it would dry out over a couple of hours. Later that evening before heading to bed, Mom and I would go into the kitchen and make our wish as we broke the wishbone.

Recently, I was at John's mother's house and she had the wishbone sitting next to her faucet to dry out and I remembered how Mom used to do the same thing. I always thought that if I got the bigger end of the wishbone that my wish would come true. It's one of the little things my Mom did for me that made me feel special. Something I will always remember.