My Favorite Childhood Thanksgiving Memory

I grew up in a house that did not observe any holidays. It was forbidden in our church, so that meant no celebrating Christmas, birthdays, Easter or Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, my father saw a way to find a nifty loophole so that he could celebrate Thanksgiving on the down-low! He called it "Thanksgiving Hopping!"

My father was the oldest of 11 kids: He had seven brothers and three sisters, and he grew up celebrating all the holidays. His favorite was Thanksgiving because his family would always cook a TON of food. Growing up in the South, we LOVE us some soul food, so giving up his favorite holiday was pure torture.

So every Thanksgiving, after we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV, my father would simply tell my mom that he was going to go "visit" his brothers and sisters since everyone had the day off work. That sneaky son-of-a ... He would go to each of his sisters' homes and eat up all the food and then go visit the next sister, eat up all the food over there, and then go to the other sister's house and, you guessed it, eat up all the food over there.

The year I finally figured out what he was doing, I told my mom that I was going to go with my dad to go "visit" the family. I would go "visit" with my dad every year after that. The year my mom wised up and figured out our sneaky plan, she decided the whole family would go along with my dad and eat up everybody's food.

"Thanksgiving Hopping" is my favorite childhood holiday memory!