Just returned from a Thanksgiving trip and facing several mounds of laundry? Join the club.

My house is strewn with half-empty suitcases and dirty clothes sorted in various piles, but I’m feeling happy. There’s nothing that beats being with family at Thanksgiving. Kids reunite with cousins as if they’ve been seeing them every day. Sisters go window shopping (empty wallets this year) and remember stories, while brothers-in-law watch football in comfortable silence. A mother’s presence reminds us that we are – and will always be – her children.

For me, the best part comes from hearing stories of childhoods past around the dining table. The memories live on in our hearts, like that of a young boy from Dayton, Ohio. Living in a neighborhood where the suburbs give way to farms, he would play army in the adjacent cornfields, catch snapping turtles, fish in the farmers’ ponds and sleep outdoors under the stars. Another memory returns, of a girl and her sister playing “open-air market” in Georgetown, Guyana. Squatting on the ground, they would yell out for buyers to approach and buy their “greens.”

Around the Thanksgiving table, we learn of different ways of life and living. My sister’s mother-in-law explained that her New Jersey house had no interior doors (except for the bathroom) when she was raising her four kids there.

“Why did you remove them?” I asked, amazed. (She appears to be a regular person.)

“I was always running into them,” she replied, explaining her house was small. “What do you need a door for?”

What a great concept, I thought! No need to keep talking to a teen hidden behind a closed door! With her three boys on one floor and her daughter on another, she says they managed just fine.

Getting to that Thanksgiving table took a nine-hour ride on dangerous highways in the rain in a car packed tight with clothes, but it was worth it. Each year, my children understand the meaning of family. They learn that family is always there for you, no matter what happens in life, and that their parents, too, were once children.

Looking for fun family events over the upcoming holidays? Visit CarolinaParent.com's Triangle Holiday Guide.