Almost Thanksgiving

Well, it's almost Thanksgiving, and we had another day in the 80's here. At this rate, we'll be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside if we want. We've actually done that here before - set up our tables outside for Thanksgiving dinner. This will be the first year that my daughter will be making the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at her home, and I will be going over there early to help her with the homemade noodles, just like my grandmother used to make almost every Sunday. Funny how she always made it look so easy, and now I only make them for special occasions because they are so much work, and so time-consuming.
I remember Thanksgiving dinners when I was young when we even had snow sometimes, back in Kansas. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., etc., etc... on my Dad's side of the family would bring in food and we had our dinner in the church basement. There was always so much food, and so many people - many of whom we only saw once a year, because they drove in from other towns and even other states to be there every year. Sometimes we kids would play "Mother-May-I" on the church steps that led up to the sanctuary. We weren't allowed to go up there, unless we didn't get caught, that is, because of course, it was a church, and we might mess up something.
Sometimes some of the men would go back to my aunt's house to watch the game - there was always a football game to watch on Thanksgiving Day. The women and the kids would stay in the church basement and talk, mostly, once they had cleaned up all the dishes and put away the food. Sometimes, we kids were allowed to go across the street to the schoolyard and play on the swings, slides and monkey bars there, or maybe someone would have brought a ball we could toss around. It was such a small town - maybe 100 people living there, in the middle of farm country.
Many years ago, and many happy memories!