Miami Thanksgiving, share your stories! (Christmas: house, weddings, live)

[Cubanchic]

Ok I wanted nostalgic thread of first older immigrants with Miami and I remember our first thanksgiving... On my OWN insistence which my father opposed I wanted to intregrate and have a thanksgiving meal, my dad kinda of said this is not my comfort zone, so he had an idea! He made us raise a turkey and kill it and then have it on the dinner table. Ugh!!!!L all of us cried that dinner and would not eat our pet!

Our Cuban father hated turkey because of his preconceived notions about turkey, never ever tatsting it and wanted to scare us, so this one notion of Americana wouldn't stick.......huge, big, awesome fail, mistake!

So I at the age of sixteen did a turkey feast for the family, yeah talk about rebellious!

So while I want to read all of your Miami thanksgiving traditions, I am really interested with those that made sure we adopted this tradition into our family traditions.

Hell for a while fried turkeys didn't enter into the landscape and all of sudden, we did them at boy scouts and loved it, even now my Hispanic friends are planning this.

My dad still doesn't like turkey but will eat my smoked one.. Go figure papi!

[blueherons]

That is sick.

[Cubanchic]

Originally Posted by blueherons

That is sick.

Yeah it was pretty much the sentiment for us kids back then, but also we were use to having chickens up north in NJ and grandpa would wring their necks when they couldn't lay eggs anymore for a chicken meal. Dad didn't think we would mind so much with a turkey but since we never had one we thought of it differently.

[Pincho-toot]

We always do it somewhere else. My favourite Thanksgiving are the cooler weather ones, temps under 70 please

Some years we have a colder Thanksgiving than Christmas, like 2011. The past two Christmases have had lame weather, this year there is a chance we might go to North Carolina as my cousin might move there, also a chance we might go to Nebraska to spend it with my aunt but that's less likely.

In recent Thanksgivings we've spent it at one of my aunt's house (or a her family friend's house) foods include turkey, mashed potato (my cousin makes the best ) and last year we made Yorkshire pudding, which I plan to make again. We also like to play football and roller hockey outside. Thanksgiving here can't compare to more seasonal places though, I can't wait to have my own family and live up north.

[Cubanchic]

Hubby has family in NC and while we don't make up there for thanksgiving, we do every other year in December. They have gotten use to my Noche Buena in Raliegh when we come up. last year we went to two weddings in October and the weather was wonderful, so I can only imagine thanksgiving in cooler temps.

[miamihurricane555]

my abuela would kill 2 turkeys every thanksgivings until she passed away. since she was from the countryside of colombia she knew how to raise chickens and turkeys fine and grow almost anything. I wasn't alive when my family first came over and had to americanize so I don't know how they did but I do know that if an american from ohio were to come to our thanksgiving he would be wondering what at least half the food is because although we do have a lot of the traditional thanksgiving food. we have also added a bunch of hispanic dishes as part of our tradition. There are repochetas,arepas,yuca,Arroz con gandules,cachapas,arroz con leche,etc yes I know that those dishes are from all over latin america but our family has married from all over latin america so new dishes are constantly being added to the thanksgiving feast. oh I almost forgot to mention that the average attendance for thanksgiving is around 50 at any given moment with about 100 people in total having stopped by at some point during the feast. our thanksgiving usually runs from 2 or 3 in the afternoon till 9 or 10 and is an extended family affair. there is so much more I can say but would end up staying here for an hour so I'll just finish up by saying that I love thanksgiving,christmas and new years as when our family bonds are at there strongest. even if I have to set up tables in the backyard of abuelos house just so everybody can fit it's absolutely awesome .

[Cubanchic]

Originally Posted by miamihurricane555

my abuela would kill 2 turkeys every thanksgivings until she passed away. since she was from the countryside of colombia she knew how to raise chickens and turkeys fine and grow almost anything. I wasn't alive when my family first came over and had to americanize so I don't know how they did but I do know that if an american from ohio were to come to our thanksgiving he would be wondering what at least half the food is because although we do have a lot of the traditional thanksgiving food. we have also added a bunch of hispanic dishes as part of our tradition. There are repochetas,arepas,yuca,Arroz con gandules,cachapas,arroz con leche,etc yes I know that those dishes are from all over latin america but our family has married from all over latin america so new dishes are constantly being added to the thanksgiving feast. oh I almost forgot to mention that the average attendance for thanksgiving is around 50 at any given moment with about 100 people in total having stopped by at some point during the feast. our thanksgiving usually runs from 2 or 3 in the afternoon till 9 or 10 and is an extended family affair. there is so much more I can say but would end up staying here for an hour so I'll just finish up by saying that I love thanksgiving,christmas and new years as when our family bonds are at there strongest. even if I have to set up tables in the backyard of abuelos house just so everybody can fit it's absolutely awesome .

Yeah we have at least 15 to twenty every year and another ten or more folks passing by for deserts and coffee later. My dad insists on having at least black beans and rice and yuca so they usually bring it along with a pork dish as well.

[himain]

All American here so we do (did) the typical white person food-turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, corn and, of course, alcohol

[Cubanchic]

We had our very first real American one when I married a Irish man that was second gen to Florida. His grandpa had to deal with an Irish meshing in Louisiana.

Even then they incorporated their own traditions into thier feast, oyster dressing, and a bit or venison with the meal.

I love my MIL to this day and often they grace our table because she is the grandma to my kids... Her husband taught me how to do these slow mushroom sauce OMG!!!! The best forget the gravy.

This is what I meant, as far as immigrant stories but I would love just all of your stories!

When first husband came over in New Orleans they had no clue what to do, second husband only knows from grandma, Duck dishes because they were originally From a western European region, when they adapted they did turkeys and at first it was new.