Thanksgiving, Flatley style

It's Monday of Thanksgiving week and I still feel the excitement I felt when I was a kid.  It was always the most magical holiday.  The anticipation would build for weeks.  Months, even.  We had a family reunion with the Flatleys every August and from that date until mid November it was a slow build of anticipation and excitement. 

Thanksgiving, Flatley family style.

As I've mentioned before, my mom is one of 13, and those 13 produced 66 children.  You do the math: that's a pretty high average number of offspring, especially considering those 13 included a nun and a priest!!  So before my generation started getting married, and while my grammy was still alive, the immediate family and their offspring totaled 91.  91!  Each August my family hosted a big outdoor family reunion in Norwalk, to which the vast majority of cousins and aunts & uncles came and we spent the day eating, drinking, taking tractor rides, swimming in that odd bird bath/pool thing, just being together.

And then came Thanksgiving.  Mom grew up in Brookline and most of her sibs stayed in the immediate Boston area, so Thanksgiving was one of the two times a year we were guaranteed to hang with a ton of cousins.  Mom and Dad would pick us up Wednesday afternoon outside of St. Thomas school with the station wagon packed, luggage container on top and filled to bursting, and we'd road trip it up to Grammy's at 52 Kendall St.  As the only out-of-towners who came up to Boston year after year, we got to stay at Grammy's in the house that my mom grew up in.  It was such a special time.  The single bathroom. Those awesome photos of the 13 kids over the couch in the den.  That photo collage in the kitchen that said, "let me tell you about my grandchildren."   Grammy would cook a roast chicken and we'd sit in the kitchen and dad would make Grammy laugh.  I thought it was so cool we had to wash the dishes by hand.  Grammy would make us tea with milk and tons of sugar.  We'd walk down to the playground down the street.  (Let's not discuss the year Julie got lost walking home.)    We fought over who got to stay with Grammy in her room.

Then it was Thanksgiving.  We were invited year after year to Uncle Kevin & Aunt Cheri's house.  Kevin is the 12th Flatley sibling so he and Cheri's five were tiny and utterly adorable.  They still are - see?

Megan, Zib, Katie, Pam and Kevin Flatley

Anyway, here are Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cherie back in the day.  Couldn't you die?

Look at them!  The fabulousness!  Aunt Cherie is such a hottie!  And she is an incredible cook.  She'd calmly cook for about 20, always with a smile on her face and that adorable giggle at every inappropriate funny thing Uncle Kevin said.  We'd take our obligatory family photo,

 a Corey classic - apparently I was heading to flight school after dinner.


then we'd head over to the Pomers for dessert and some serious cousin time. 

12-1: Sorry Kristen!

The Pomers.  Aunt Peggy and Uncle Frank and their 12 kids, every one of them nicer  and more gorgeous than the other.  Their house was a constant, loving jumble of kids, food and cousins as far as the eye could see. With twelve kids everyone had a Pomer cousin to sync up with, sometimes two.  It was a BLAST. 

 Kathy Pomer, Mary Mac, Mary & Janet Pomer, Kara Mac? Uncle Jim and Aunt Peggy

 

  I love how everyone is always draped all over eachother, how evident the love-fest is.  

love the bow -me and Kathy Pomer

Uncle Brian rockin a serious 70s 'do.  Is that Frankie in the hat? 

My cousin Meg Pomer Koslowsky posted most of these pictures to our family's sharesite this week:

• Pam Flatley Keating Love this picture!

  
  
• Judy McIntyre Uncle B!

  
  
• Maureen Meyer I love Richard's expression. So cute.

  
  
• Ellie Corey Just pure awesomeness.

  
  
• Maureen Meyer I don't know how Aunt Peggy & Uncle Frank did it every year. They were terrific hosts. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at our own house and drove over to the Pomer's afterwards to say hi to everyone and it often coincided with Dad's birthday.

  
  
• Sheila Flatley Rubio We did the same Maureen Meyer. I was always so excited to head over to the Pomers.

  
  
• Julie Corey Us too. We ate with the Kevin and Cheri Flatleys. Aunt Cheri would cook for like 20. we always did our family Christmas picture there. then we headed to the Pomers for dessert, nuts, oranges, running around in the basement and pilfering from the giant pickle jar in the fridge down there, and then home movies from the previous Thanksgiving courtesy of dad Corey.

  
  

Movies.  That was Joe Corey's wheelhouse.  Each year he'd take a ton of movies at thanksgiving and the family reunion, then at some point at the Pomers we'd hang a white sheet and set up the old movie projector and it was showtime.  I never wanted those nights to end.

Food, drinks, laughter, family, gratitude. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!