WIN Your Thanksgiving Turkey & Tips for More Meaningful Holiday Photos!
Turkey Winners! Congratulations to: Tracey Bentley, Tiffany Schmidt, and Sally Rector Patterson!
Only thing I hate about giveaways is that everyone can’t win! I really need to be Oprah one day…
Please email me your mailing address at ichristy@ymail.com and I’ll send them out tomorrow!
When it comes to Thanksgiving and turkey, one name instantly comes to mind: Butterball! Not only are they known for their ever-juicy birds, but also for their famed Butterball Hotline that allows consumers to call in with all of their turkey questions and have them answered by seasoned professionals. The butterball hotline began 29 years ago and received over 11,000 calls in it’s first year. Today, Butterball employs more than fifty college degreed home economists who answer over 100,000 questions each year in November and December.
Got questions? They’re here to answer them! Whether it be how to impress your in laws or how to feed a large gathering, Butterball experts are ready to help. Just call 1-800-Butterball (1-800-288-8372) and get ready for a less-stress holiday!
Now on to how to enter to win a Butterball Turkey Certificate AND how to better preserve your family history this holiday season. I’m sure the two are related somehow.
As I sat down to type up this post, I had just finished going through a box of old photographs from my childhood. It’s amazing how many of my special memories are caught on film. But one photo in particular stood out to me. It was one of my Grandaddy pushing us around in the wheel barrow on Thanksgiving. We always arrived at my Grandmama’s house early so that Mama could help cook the meal. The house heated up awfully quick and all of the kids usually spent most of the time before the meal playing outside. Grandaddy, who dearly loved kids, joined us whenever he could and never turned down our requests for rides in his wheel barrow around the yard.
Grandaddy, Me, my sister Patti, brother Bill
Finding this picture meant the world to me, not that I didn’t have the image etched firmly in my mind, but now I can see it tangibly and share it with my children as well so they can “remember” along with me. I was fortunate to find that one but I also learned some things while going through the photos, aside from the fact that I come from a long line of very bad photographers! I thought I’d share a few tips with you to help improve the value of your holiday photographs.
Tips for Remembering the Holidays Through Photos
- Remember what really matters. Food is important, so is atmosphere, but ten years from now are you really going to care that you have a photo of Aunt Sue’s casserole, or a photo of Aunt Sue? Whenever possible, put people in your photos. You’ll be glad you did.
- Take a “hungry” camera. I know this sounds morbid but we don’t know how long our loved ones will be with us. An opportunity where we are all gathered together is a precious one, take photos of everyone present both casually and smiling directly at the camera. Make your camera “hungry” for everyone. Be sure to hand it off to get a few photos of yourself as well.
- Be Considerate of your subjects for better photos. I think everyone in my family has had at least a few photos taken right as we put a bite of food in our mouth. Not very flattering, believe me. Warn your subjects ahead of time so that they can look their best and you can get a photo everyone will be proud of. “Okay, everyone look up!” will suffice, provided you wait a second until they look up and see the camera.
- Take a few posed group shots with assorted groupings. One of the photos I came across was my dad’s grandparents, Mama Pearl and Papa Cleve. There was a photo of my dad, his mom, Mama Pearl and Papa Cleve, myself and my siblings. It was a very nice photo. However, whoever took the photos (most likely my Mama) also placed each of us individually with Mama Pearl and Papa Cleave, which makes for an even more intimate photo as a remembrance of our relationship. I’m glad we have it both ways.
- Have prints made. I am the world’s worse at this since digital cameras have taken over. Looking through all of these family photographs though, I’m going to make it a point to change that and have photos printed at least monthly. While I don’t have time to properly scrapbook them like I used to, I can at least place them in an acid free album using a safe adhesive. I want my kids to be able to thumb through their memories one day, too.
I’d love to hear your hints and tips for preserving the memories of the holidays. I’d also love to hear about your favorite Thanksgiving memory. Did your Grandaddy to ride you around in a wheel barrow like mine did? Did your granny make a special dish just because you liked it? What memory do you try to recreate for your children and grandchildren today?
Share a little with me in the comments below and be entered to win one of THREE Butterball Turkey Certificates, just in time for Thanksgiving!
I’ll draw winners at random next Monday and notify the winners on this post and on the Southern Plate Family Page on Facebook.
Good Luck!
For additional entries, do one of the following:
On Twitter: Tweet “Win a Butterball Turkey from @butterball and @southernplate! http://snipurl.com/t5snz “
Facebook: Post a link to this giveaway on your Facebook page and let me know you did on the Southern Plate Family Page!
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns;
I am thankful that thorns have roses.
~Alphonse Karr. Submit your quote here.
My good friend (and flea market buddy!), Lara alerted me to some great deals on Turkey at Wal Mart. She has a great deal finder blog if y’all are interested. She’s a great friend, too!
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Nov 9 2009. Filed under Misc.
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My favorite tradition / memory of Thanksgiving is that each year my family goes around the table before saying grace and says one thing we are each thankful for. It is a great way to share gratitude.
Thanks for the chance to win a turkey!
Thanks for the chance to win a turkey! What’s Thanksgiving w/out the star?So many reasons to be thankful,I wish we could skip Halloween and concentrate on Thanksgiving, and spending time w/family and those dear too us.Hope you all have a blessed one!
Thanksgiving hasn’t really been our “big” family holiday(we are all about New Year’s Eve) but once I married into my husband’s family, I found out what sitting around the table, being thankful, and eating while giggling with family is all about. With my family, you grabbed your plate, filled it up in the kitchen and found a place to sit and eat. With Hubby’s family, we sit around a big table, everything is laid out and we sit and eat all together. We talk about our year, our day, and even bring up funny aspects from the past year’s Thanksgiving. I look forward to it every year and think about it for the 11 months up until the next one.
Just tweeted about this giveaway too!
Even though my Grandmother was the best cook I ever met, she could not cook a turkey to save her life– it was always dry, with no taste what so ever! I think that is now why I look forward more to the leftovers (make a turkey sandwich with bread, mayo, turkey, salt and pepper) more than Thanksgiving Day itself!!
I love Thanksgiving, especially being a mom. Sharing the parades with my sons, making favorite dishes, spending time together. It is all awesome!
With a husband who works in retail, we haven’t been able to be with family for Thanksgiving in many, many years. This year is the exception…going home for Thanksgiving with all of my siblings in attendance! I’d love to be able to bring the turkey! I’m so looking forward to this year as opposed to years past when we enjoyed buffets at restaurants with strangers who couldn’t get home either. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
My best memories of Thanksgiving were when I was a kid and we went to grandmothers where I had 27 first cousins to play with. There would be tables of food then football games in the cow pasture!!!
Our son will be making it home for Thanksgiving this year so it will be special since we get to celebrate both his birthday and Thanksgiving. He was born on Thanksgiving so I sometimes call him our turkey–all in love, of course.
Just a SPECIAL time of the year!!! Each year evolves with different plans…can remember years ago, all the family was gone, so my husband and I went to a movie, then planned on eating out…only to find NO PLACE!!!!..so, we had POPCORN (at the movies) for Thanksgiving…quite a memory ( a laughable one).
My mom always made our birthday cakes into a fun shape of something we were into that year. When I was 13 I was finally allowed to get my ears pierced. My cake that year was a big ear with an earring in it. When I was 16 and got my drivers license, my cake was an exact replica of my license. I am doing the same for my kids and they love it as much as I do.
Butterball beats them all, send me a turkey! We have so many people gathered at the inlaws house for Thanksgiving people are everywhere with plates and conversation. We all bring a dish to go with the turkey and the ladies help clean up after dinner. We all gather squeezed into one room so the kids can say prayer before eating, its always a beautiful holiday.
I am in a position that I have to create my own traditions. Mom was not a cook and the extended family was not a Norman Rockwell painting. I have been experimenting and love to fix a good meal for my family.
We always had a big Thanksgiving dinner. I remember most the stress it placed on my mother. Usually the turkey would be overdone, or the biscuits burned (burned, canned biscuits were a family tradition), or the stuffing not perfect.
But you know what? The food didn’t HAVE to be perfect. My mother was cooking for us, and that made the day perfect! That she spent all day in the kitchen proved that she loved her family.
Also, thank you so much for the photo tips! I hate that most of the pictures I’m in have me looking like a fish because I’m in the middle of chewing! I love candid pictures… but please, make sure they’re not unflattering!
I remember when we were kids every holiday we went to my Maw-Maw’s on my Mom’s side to have lunch and my Dad’s side for supper. Those were such great memories. Everyone brought a dish or two and we had so much food. My dad would be the last one to get there cause he was huntin of course how he loved to hunt. He has been gone for 14 years now he died just before Christmas. I can remember so many good times that we had. Now all are gone to be with Jesus now but I still have those fond memories to share with my kids. Holidays are for sharing good food and good conservation and a lot of tall tales. Enjoy everyone. Enjoy today and treat everyone like there is no tomorrow after all we are not promised tomorrow.
Thanks Christy for your site.
My super favorite is Butterball Turkey. It’s always perfect – delicious & loved by the entire family.
It Just would not be Thanksgiving without the ‘star’ on the table.
Jade
We go to my uncle’s house on Thanksgiving. Always. It is so nice to now take my kids there, watching them play and do the things we always did as kids. The menu is the same too- I love how when you walk into the house I smell the same smells I have been smelling for 40+ years. I now know what the grownups meant when they said that time flies.
I too have become more mindful of the fact that some of our dear relatives may not have many family holidays left and have begun taking more pictures of them, with my children especially, so they can remember them to their children. For Christmas this year I created a photo book with the Kodak Gallery’s $15 gift for one of them – my husband’s uncle. It has pictures of him with my husband as a small child and a picture I made this past summer of them, as well as pictures of him with our children and other family members. It turned out beautiful and I can’t wait to see the look on his face as he opens it and sees the memories preserved like that.
Thank you for the opportunity to win a turkey as well as all the wonderful recipes and reminiscenses you bring each day. I hope you have a wonderful holiday
Just being with my Granny was the most special memory of thanksgiving. I love pumpkin pie memories and cranberry sauce. I think one of the best tips for photos that my sister-in-law does, is just observational shots. Almost nothing is posed. She is always the photographer, and she does such a good job. This works great for our family, she’s the designated photographer, and shoots lots and lots of pictures, a few are posed but most aren’t, she just catches intimate moments between family members.
Thank you, Christie, for all the wonderful opportunities you offer!
Girl, you know my favorite memory was around food. It was a tradition that everybody expected and teased me about. I would fill up at supper, which was always at noon, then doze off on the couch to the drone of football on the tv, wake up a few hours later and immediately go for another plate of food!! Mama got the biggest kick out of it and it was my annual ritual. I sure miss her. Thanks for the opportunity to enter your giveaway.
My favorite memory of Thanksgiving still happens today. My grandma used to live about 2 hours away from me and my momma. Every year, we’d go up to her house early in the day. We’d spend all day with my grandma, her long-time boyfriend, and my family which is myself, my momma, my stepdad, my sister, and my brother. After we were all stuffed full from turkey, ham, stuffing, and far too many goodies we’d do our Christmas exchange. It’s two of the best holidays rolled into one day. My grandma lives much closer to my family now, but we still keep this tradition going. I actually look forward to it every year. It’s a nice way to get my Christmas spirit up and running for the year. Not to mention the fact that I love my grandma’s cooking!
Always went to grandmother’s house. I loved the get togethers and food.
My memorable Thanksgivings were the ones when I was young, and we went to my nanny and paw paw’s house for the day. To this day, I can’t duplicate my grandmother’s mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, the holiday is a little sad, now, since my grandfather passed 2 days before Thanksgiving 15 years ago.
My tip is share a hot plate of food with a soldier on base if near an installation, but if not prepare a plate or two for someone in the area that may need a hot meal. Deliver it and share a few minutes with them. It is always a blessing to have an unexpected guest at the table…
My favorite memories are the traditions my Mom and Nana had. We had large family gatherings, everyone and their families came home on the holiday to Nana’s house. Kids were allowed to eat anything they wanted on the holiday, even if it was just jell-o and pie. Both are Mom and Nana gone now, so I remind the kids each year with stories of them and have my children help make the special family recipes. I look forward to big family meals again, hopefully when my kids grow up and bring their own families back home.
Thank you for the great photo tips. I’ll be sure to use them this Thanksgiving.
It’s not Thanksgiving without a Butterball!
At least, that’s our tradition. My parents, not so much. Mom hates turkey.
We usually had chicken.
My favorite funny memory was the year I tried to do things up fancy when I brought a friend home from college. Mom doesn’t eat turkey, so I opted for ham. Only after we got to the table did he turn to me with a sad face, and tell me he was Jewish!
After my husband & I married all of my family joined his family for Thanksgiving and all of his family joined my family for Christmas. It was a perfect solution for all sharing in the grandchildren’s holidays and enjoying one another. We had good times in Vicksburg, MS at the home where my mother-in-law was raised and where she raised her family. The two families would gather around her huge dinning room table and we would stuff ourselves on good food and shared many good times together. My children grew to love that home which is now a thing of the past but is itched in our memories forever.
There have been so many Thanksgivings in my life that it is difficult to remember which one has the best memories. It has always been about being with family and more food than you can even imagine, especially my mom’s turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, and desserts including her caramel pies. No one could ever quite duplicate her dressing or caramel pies.
Mom always had us write down what we were most grateful for on a drawing of a vegtable/fruit that would then be taped to a drawing of a big cornicopia..both a decoration and reminder of what we were grateful. Remember to date it so that you can look back over the years and see what meant so much to you at various stages of life.
Happy T-day!
What a wonderful idea! Even the youngest in the family could join in (with a little help from the older children in writing it down).
You always make us think of our past which is so neat seems there is never time to sit and reflect on it as much as we would like too anymore.My favorite Thanksgiving was all of the ones my family could sit down to and spend the whole day together and talk about the things we are really grateful for in life.Leftovers were cool to but thats another story for another time.Thanks Christy for helping us remember times and places almost forgotten it seems with this hectic life we all seem to be caught up in…..:)
Whenever I think of Thanksgiving, I think butterball. You just gotta have a butterball turkey or it’s not Thanksgiving. Looking forward to a great holiday and then the shopping on Friday.
I love old family photos. They’re the best. They make you realize how blessed you are and that being thankful is the reason for Thanksgiving. All who read my comment….have a blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Cathy Vins
Thanksgiving for our family always means turkey, along with homemade dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy – and we must have corn souffle or I’m in trouble!! AND ice cream jello for every holiday!! My grandkids all love dill pickles and olives, homemade rolls and lefse (my oldest grandson called it “ufda bread” when he was little!!) Can you tell we are Scandinavians?? Pumpkin pie rounds everything out, and my daughter in law makes a super Mystery pecan pie! I always have enough leftovers for supper and maybe some for everyone to take home!! And we share what we are most thankful for!
Being a member of a large family, holidays are always wild and crazy for us. But the memories of all of us spending time together are priceless. Like many other families we have the special dishes that it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without like Mama’s dressing, her sweet potatoes, our cranberry congeled salad, the “beach cake” (that’s a whole story in itself) and Ann’s lemon pound cake. One of our family members has even put together a family cookbook that includes all of our favorite recipies and has given each of us a copy.
My favorite thanksgiving memories were when my great-mother was alive, she always stressed the importance of our family staying close. She was a very good southern cooks who could cook just about anything. Family is what our memories should be made of.
I don’t have any real memories from my childhood Thanksgivings, so what I’m doing is trying to make great memories for my children. I make sure each one has one special dish they alone help me prepare.
Hope ya’ll have a wonderful holiday!
I have loved cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Loved everything about it…the traditional favorites…..Turkey & dressing, green bean casserole. cranberry salad, pumpkin pie. The family being together and being thankful.
Thanksgiving to me means a big table of food and a large gathering of family. Since we have some older children in our family now, we’ve started what we call “The Turkey Bowl” which is a killer game of kickball after the Thanksgiving meal. Not right after of course
Great fun!
Also…here’s one that may throw this southern crowd…We have to have cornbread dressing(Duh!)AND mashed potatoes!!!! Why? Because we have a mixed marriage…Dad’s from the south, mom is a yankee. It’s always worked
my memory is always watching the macy’s parade with my grandmother. After she passed I kept up the tradition and look forward to it
Ever since I was a little girl, my grandfather has made giblet gravy at Thanksgiving. My mother and I always look forward to eating the gravy all by itself straight out of a coffee cup. It’s the best gravy ever, and no one can make it quite like Papaw.
Butterball turkey and watching the macy parade as it cooked. Going to my grandmother’s and playing with my cousins.
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays… we always get together with a big group of friends. And last year we found a really fun resource for dishing up an amazing meal and making it all come out right and at the same time, Rouxbe.com … and the best part is, they are all in video format so you can just watch and learn… check it out: http://rouxbe.com/thanksgiving-dinner
and thanks for the chance to win a turkey!
This probably doesn’t sound that special – but, I was always in charge of the cheeseball. When the women were planning the Thanksgiving meal and everyone was getting assigned their dishes, I was given cheeseball duty. Because it’s the easiest dish to make. And back in the day I was not the world’s greatest cook. Far from it! So, every Thanksgiving during my late teens and early 20′s I whipped up our family cheeseball.
My Nanny (grandmother) always highly praised my oh-so-delicious cheeseball. Bless her!
Now that I’ve FINALLY progressed beyond the cheeseball stage, I was very proud last year to bestow the honor upon my youngest daughter, Vivian. At age eight she was already at the cheeseball stage, far advanced over her mother. My oldest daughter was already moved to meringue duty.
Seeing the cheeseball every Thanksgiving reminds me of times spent sitting at the kitchen table, mixing the soft cheeses and watching the pros take care of the rest. And now, when I am working as the pro, I smile when I see my youngest daughter working the cheeseball duty.
This is a very sweet and special story – thanks for sharing!
My grandpa is always the key to most of my favorite holiday memories. He is the ultimate in “grumpy old fart”. He and I have always had a close bond.
That and homemade pie. Cherry, preferably. With real whipped cream.
Hey Christie,
Look at those long ponytails that you and Patti had…how cute!
No my Grandpa didn’t ride us around in the wheel barrow, but he did have this big ol blue tractor and when he would hook up the mower attachment (this big square thing, I’m sure someone knows what I’m talking about) me and my cousins would all sit on it while it goes up and down cutting the grass.
I know it sounds dangerous and I would probably freak out if I saw my girls on it, but we would have so much fun. And after we were done we would pick and eat grapes to our hearts content!
I wish I had known my grandmothers, but they both died before I was born. My mother was “mother” to her brothers and sisters and my father’s siblings. So, we had LOTS of company on Thanksgiving every year. Children slept on the floor all over the house and we ate in shifts — menfolk first, of course, kids came next and the women ate last. How I loved those times when we were ALL together! Does anyone besides me remember their mother cooking the turkey in a brown paper bag?
Aunt Charley
Memories of mother? For goodness sake — I remember doing it myself. LOL.
Just when I think Southern Plate can’t get any better, it does. You simply are a true southern gal and it is the women of the south like you that have fed and kept the men an families going for years… Words are to little to express my thanks for what you share and how simple you keep great tasting recipes. Paula Deen needs to move over, another gal is on the block… and this is a better way to win a turkey than when in high school I dressed up as a big turkey in Parkway City Mall and even went into the fitness center there with all these ladies in there trying to loose weight and me giving away a turkey… have a great holiday to everyone.
We spent everything Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s when I was growing up. We had more food than we could ever possibly eat – had to be 23 sides to go with the turkey – and ham. My favorites were my grandmother’s dressing and mom’s sweet potato casserole.
God bless you for the turkey giveaway. What a wonderful thing with some of us continuing to experience unemployment. I agree with a prior comment stating they wished Halloween could be pushed aside & Thanksgiving be given a higher priority. It has become nothing more than a grocery store holiday for so many. They concentrate on the eating rather than family & giving thanks to God for all he has blessed us with.