Families share Thanksgiving plans

CNJ staff photo: Liliana Castillo Fern Acuff puts a homemade cherry pie in the oven Wednesday at her home in north Clovis.

Melissa Carpenter’s family is starting a new Thanksgiving tradition this year.

The men in her family are traveling to Dallas to attend the Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving.

Carpenter said all the men in their family have been Cowboys fans for as long as she can remember.

“They bleed blue,” she said.

The women of the family will head to Hart to Carpenter’s mother’s home to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving feast, and maybe a chick flick.

“We’ll watch the game and look for them in the crowd first,” she said.

Her daughter, Katy, said she loves the food of Thanksgiving.

“I love the turkey, and my grandma’s dressing,” she said, as her eyes grew wider thinking about it.

For Mae Szaloy, it has been 10 years since her family came to her house for Thanksgiving, but the only thing she’s worried about is the turkey.

“It’s always the turkey,” she said. “But we’re frying our turkey this year so it should be OK.”

Szaloy said about nine people will be gathering at her home in Grady.

“We just like being together,” she said. “We’ll eat, play card games and dominoes and just be together. I’m so blessed each year to spend Thanksgiving with my family.”

JoEllen Mayfield said she isn’t looking forward to the first Thanksgiving that she has to cook.

“My mom’s dressing is wonderful,” she said. “Nothing she cooks is bad.”

Mayfield and 15 of her family all live in Clovis and gather at her mother’s home for Thanksgiving each year.

Fern Acuff is the mother who hosts Thanksgiving for her family.

Her daughter, Patsy Acuff, came to her mother’s home in north Clovis the day before Thanksgiving to help her prepare to feed about 12 people.

“This is what we do,” Patsy said. “We come together to cook and then we come together to eat.”

Patsy and Fern spent Wednesday making pies and bread for the Thanksgiving meal. Fern makes her pie crusts and pies from scratch.

“She doesn’t cheat like me,” Patsy said. “I buy mine from Furr’s.”