I know that I was blessed when it comes to holiday dinners. There were a lot of good, practiced cooks in my family and we reaped the benefits – a perfectly browned turkey, a delicious farm ham, scalloped corn, stuffing with just enough ingredients to make it interesting and plenty of pies.

Everyone played their part and knew their limitations. Sister Julie brought a tabouli salad a couple of times, but only a couple of times. Later on, she was assigned a green salad, because I mean how bad can you mess that up. Again, she knew her limitations and never strayed too far after that.

The only thing I couldn’t bring myself to pile on my plate was Auntie Pam’s sweet potatoes with marshmallows. She said it wasn’t a holiday meal without them. I begged to differ.

My Dad’s family incorporated tamales into our Holiday dinners. If his sister – the tamale maker – was not there, he would have someone make a few dozen for us. When asked where he got them, all he’d say was, “On the reservation.” They were always very, very good and it’s the flavor profile I seek when I eat tamales today.

My mom and her mom were excellent cooks and depending on whose house the celebration took place, that’s who cooked the turkey. The pies were scratch made and always included a lemon pie, along with the pecan and pumpkin pies. We never had a bad one.

Related:Beef: It’s what’s for holiday dinner

One year, I decided to smoke a turkey. Mom made a backup just in case. Both turkeys turned out excellent, so we just had more to take home afterward.

Another year we decided to have Thanksgiving dinner in the mountains with both sides of the family. My cousin Rita cooked the turkey. She and her husband decided to try an old road – more of a trail – to the celebration site and got stuck in a ravine, delaying dinner for a couple of hours.

In the meantime, one of my dad’s uncles did some bartending. My graceful, elegant grandma from the other side of the family got pretty tipsy, well ok, drunk. My mom was so mad and swore we’d never combine families again as everyone laughed at her mother.

Over the years, the big holidays have gotten smaller and smaller. We still cook like mad. For a while, I cooked two turkeys after the turkey preparer of one of the extended families passed away.

This year, we quietly spent the first Thanksgiving eating turkey dinner at a nice restaurant. It was very good, and the company was perfect.

However, we missed the chaotic fervor of the family kitchen preparation. So, for Christmas you’ll find us in the middle of the mess. Oyster stew for Christmas Eve, followed by all the fixings of a family dinner Christmas day, most likely without the tabouli.

Related:Avoid empty chairs at holiday dinner table