The Virtual Tradition

The smokey smell of the turkey roasting in the kitchen,smell of freshly baked cornbread and the loud sound of the television in the hall room where the entire family had gathered and perched together on the couch watching the Macy's parade had filled the air with a different kind of enjoyment,Christmas was knocking at the door,the chilly weather had given a message that the harvest was done and it was time to give thanks and celebrate Thanksgiving.

Peggy was busy in the kitchen,the menu for today's dinner was great,fall soup,cornbread, mashed potatoes, yams,a gaint roasted stuffed turkey with sweet red cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.Gavin was trying to help her with the dishes.Pompom peeped through, he was the smallest member of the family and was not able to control himself when the air was filled with aromatic odor of his favorite roasted turkey and cranberry sauce.Sally,Molly,Billy were in the hall watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and waiting for their cousins to arrive.There was almost an inch of snow layer outside,the fire place was set to fire already.The weather was getting colder,temperature was falling below normal.Still this time of the year families and friends gathers to celebrate and there is a warmth due to their love,happiness and unity.The calling bell buzzed with a great noise and within seconds Peggy was able to hear laughter,smiles and loud noises of greetings,with a big smile on her face Peggy hurried past the kitchen when someone entered the kitchen with great pomp."Happy Thanksgiving Peggy and Gav"With arms spread for an embraces Aunt Jenny entered the kitchen,she hugged Peggy with great affection,she was Peggy's first cousin and joined the family for the Thanksgiving dinner.There was loud noises,merry making and greetings.The bloody Mary was already set on the table in the hall with some snacks.The villa was again filled with happiness.

The last few months had been diverse,the pandemic situation,the social distancing had changed everything.There were government restrictions for travel across provinces.Often this time of the year the family visits their Grandparents in the country side and Thanksgiving is celebrated with all the near and dear ones,families and friends,this was the time for celebration and merry making.Grandma was always in charge of the kitchen helped by Peggy and aunt Jenny.Others used to have a full time enjoyment.Weeks before they would go for their shopping to the stores at great discounts and useless to mention Macy's stores were not left.The masses always gets carried away towards Macy's not because of the Christmas Seasonal discounts but also the Macy's Parade. The parade revelers, floats, and balloons march in front of Macy's department store in New York City had remained a classic Thanksgiving tradition. Millions of people line the street in NYC each year and fight the cold to see the great floats in person. Millions more watch the parade on TV in the morning.Children and adults alike enjoy many floats, best of all the huge balloons of favorite cartoons and Disney characters. Young children anxiously await Santa's appearance as the last float of the parade, and he always appears with his reindeer at noontime. Santa brings with him the official beginning of the Christmas season. He will appear in Macy's store so children can sit on his lap and tell Santa what they want him to bring for Christmas presents. The storefront windows in NYC are also decorated, often with moving characters and stories of the Christmas season.

But this year it was different,the Smith family could not travel to their countryside house to celebrate Thanksgiving,nor was the Macy's Parade quite enjoyable with restrictions this time.Millions of people gather here each year but today the picture was different.People are now virtually enjoying the "social distancing"Macy's Parade.Not many were allowed to gather,even the Smith's family missed it and decided to watch it on the TV.They had been missing grandma and grandpa so much,Pompom cried the night before over the phone while talking to his grandma.Billy,Sally & Molly were unhappy they were going to miss the "cracking of the wishbone"that was a tradition for the family since ages for the Thanksgiving competing their 6 more cousins.Uncle Joe was also planning something interesting this year but the pandemic had washed away all his plannings.He won't be able to attend the gathering tonight.Grandma and grandpa were old and they could not travel due to restriction. Sarah,Megan,Derek,Patric all had uploaded their last year's celebration pictures in their social networking sites and cherished their memories of the previous year’s Thanksgiving.Though the environment in Smith villa was quite warming and happy but they missed them all.It was evening and time for dinner to be served.Aunt Jenny helped Peggy in the kitchen.Her daughter lived in a different province and could not join them,all the Smith children had expected Anna but in vain.The dining table was nicely decorated,with smokey turkey which was the queen of the dinner table.The soup bowls were filled with relishing and tasty fall soup,fresh baked corn bread,yams,mashed potatoes,turkey gravy,everything in the menu had been settled on the table.Pompom's face was pale,he was going to miss his gandma's signature recepie.The family which was almost 47 now was numbered to only 7.Suddenly Aunt Jenny stood from her chair and moved towards her bag,she came back with her laptop in hand.Pompom was watching everything all the while,he got down from his seat and went running to Aunt Jenny.She opened her laptop and connected to her skype.In few minutes there were number of faces visible on the screen and everyone greeted together,"Happy Thanks giving"and there were virtual hugs and kisses there was smile on everyone's face.But who planned it all and there came another jovial face on the screen "Uncle Joe"all the children exclaimed in unison."We all missed you".Uncle Joe was popular amongst the family and friends particularly children because of his jovial nature,everlasting smile and his amiable nature to jell up with everyone.He was always the Santa in Christmas party.Whatever the situation may be,Pandemic might have disturbed our social life but Uncle Joe had planned this virtual dinner together in vedio chat.Though few members were still missing but yes Pompom was so happy that his grandma and grandpa were there in the virtual dinner.So the dinner started with a toast from grandpa as he was the eldest and thus it passed on to the rest of the members.It was decided that post the dinner everyone would click a family photo each and send to Uncle Joe to make a Family collage.There was just one tradition that they would miss the cracking of the wishbone.Billy was upset about it,he won it the last time.It ideally happens before everyone settles for dinner.Maybe this was missed this year but next year might come with great happiness.Every one sat at the dinner table where ever they were in different parts of the world."Wow this is tasty,"said Pompom nibbling the turkey served to him."Grandma smiled and said,"So my darling liked it?I shared my receipe with Peggy and I must appreciate Peg you really did a great job".The dinner was over for all.Each one had their dinner to the fullest, few exclaimed the turkey tasted awesome still others liked the corn bread baked , the mashed potatoes tasted better claimed a few all in all everyone enjoyed their dinner from wherever they were."What is there for dessert" claimed Derek and Megan in unison to their mom.Their Mom smile and said "get it from your kitchen children".All the children ran to their kitchens,the family always loved engaging the children to serve the desserts,they enjoyed and loved it.When one by one every one returned from the kitchen they tried showing their desserts ,all had the same dessert prepared,so this was again a plan to make the children happy.Pumpkin pie for dessert ,so tasty and yummy...Mrs Briganza loved pumpkin pie so much so that when she was trying to put a big piece in her mouth the cream layer squeezed in leaving white mark above her lips giving it a shape of moustach,her eyes were closed appreciating every bite that trickled her taste buds.Aunt Jenny started to smile when all the children looked at her and smiled. Unaware about what had happened,Mrs Briganza digged in her hands to the pie dish to fetch another piece when Patric stood up from his chair with a napkin in hand to wipe off her face, that was embarrasing!!!But everyone laughed and Mrs Briganza could not control hers as well.When the dinner was over it was time for the family to start to sing songs ,Play guitar and enjoy the rest of the evening.Billy ran to bring his guitar,he was a good artist.Laughter,giggles,pranks everything was at the high rise.The family was enjoying just as they would enjoy together physically,though everything happened over a video chat the only tradition that didnot take place was the cracking of the wishbone.Where you break the turkey wishbone with another person and whoever has the bigger side gets good luck. Since the family could not do that this year, Uncle Joe was waiting for this exciting moment when he announced a new wishbone breaking tradition. He said"We will break the wish bone now".There was silence for a moment and then whispers amongst the children and then "Yea......" shrieked the children in unison.There was a smile on everyone's face.This time the cracking of the wishbone was different all the children will try to compete their siblings and crack the bone once cracked they would have to hold up their wishbones on camera, choose a winning hand break at the same time, and whoever loses has to plan next year’s Thanksgiving.Though the competition would be in smaller masses but eachone gets their chances no one has to compete and eachone still has a chance to fulfill the dream.Pompom being the youngest of all got the first chance with Sally,eachone had a partner.Then the count began,Uncle Joe counted,1,2...suddenly Anna burst out in anger,"Did anyone think about me?I donot have a pair ",she said.There was a silence and then every one burst in to laughter.Aunt Jenny trying to control her laughter said,"Anna check out there is something for you in the gift box you received today morning".Anna had quite forgotten to unwrap the gift,with a smile she stood and walked away and within no time brought the gift near the laptop to let everyone see what was in there,twisting,tearing struggling,finally the gift was unwrapped. There inside the box lay on a soft cloth a wish bone,she was to crack the wishbone herself and made sure it broke in to two equal halves to get her wish fulfilled,well this was exciting,challenging and suprising as well,all planned by Uncle Joe,he was just the person of the family who took care of everyone's Wishes.The ceremony started,Uncle Joe counted 1,2,3....on the count of 3 everyone started struggling with their couterparts to break the largest part of the bone.Derrek and Megan were the first to break,then Billy and Molly,Sally and Pompom were third,Sarah too struggled and crack opened the largest part from Patric's.Anna being the eldest concentrated on cracking the bone equally and "Kr..rk.."with a sound the wish bone broke in to 2 equal halves,everyone was happy and excited,winners finally smiled,their wishes would be fulfilled.May be they never said anything but they all wished the same that the next year the celebrations doesnot happen on vedio chat rather they can enjoy the same way at grandma's place.So was the wish of every member when they had bid good bye to each other with virtual kisses and hugs.Grandma and grandpa were emotional they never thought Thanksgiving could have been celebrated and enjoyed over a vedio chat...