If you closely examined the basement ceiling at Grandma Swaim’s home, my guess is you would still find remnants of mashed potatoes. During the holidays the Swaim family would gather at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

I loved to get there early and help cut the noodles and string them over a drying rack. Chocolate chip cookies would be cooling on the counter (minus whatever my cousins and I could steal when no one was looking). The kitchen would be full of bubbling pans and the aroma of roasting meat.

If all of my aunts, uncles and cousins showed up, the tiny house would be bursting with about 20 people. Most of the time it would have been closer to 15, with half of that number being kids.

The kitchen table would be extended as far as it would go and the adults could barely squeeze around it. This meant the cousin brigade had to sit elsewhere. There was usually a four-seater card table set up in an alcove in the kitchen and tables set up in the basement.

If you needed supervision while you ate, you got the card table in the kitchen; if you were able to hold your own in terms of eating, you were relegated to the basement where there was no adult supervision. Mashed potato wars were inevitable. Adults didn’t care what was going on down there as long as no one was screaming or bleeding.

I always wanted to be part of the adult crowd. Mom always said she thought I was born old. My brothers just thought I always wanted to be the goody two-shoes. I may have tattled on a few of the mashed potato wars.

In my teenage years I wanted to sit at the adult table because on Thanksgiving and Christmas only, Grandpa Swaim would serve Cold Duck. I thought that was the height of sophistication. There would always be two bottles in the refrigerator and the cork would pop, and everyone would get a glass of over-sweet bubbly stuff. I could sometimes get a taste.

After dinner those of us in the younger crowd were encouraged to leave the house – explore the farm, go on a scavenger hunt, anything to get us out of the way. Again, as long as no one was bleeding or screaming, we had the run of the farm.

As far as I can remember, no one was ever injured and there were definitely no “helicopter parents.” The adults would break out decks of cards and play Euchre. As I got older I also joined in the card games.

The extended family of Max and Edna Swaim still gathers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We often rent a facility, as there are a lot of us. I am not sure who everyone is anymore. I know the children of my cousins for the most part, but I get fuzzy when it comes to the generation after that.

Kids play basketball. I catch up with my nieces and nephews. We still eat a traditional meal in which someone makes the noodles and mashed potatoes. I am generally relegated to bringing the soft drinks, as cooking never turned out to bring my strong suit. Maybe I’ll throw in some bottles of Cold Duck this year just for old time’s sake.

For those of you planning Thanksgiving dinner, the cost of a traditional dinner should be about 7 percent less than it was last year. Good for the consumer; not so good for the farmer on the other end of the equation.

The Iowa Farm Bureau estimates the cost for a Thanksgiving feast for 10 people to be $48.90, while the Indiana Farm Bureau estimates the cost for Hoosiers to be around $47.22. It works out to less than $5 a person.

If you order your feast, the cost rises to about $8 per person. If you substitute ham for your turkey, Iowa Farm Bureau says the cost per person rises to $6 for the meal.

Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics estimates turkey prices will be at a 10-year low this year, at around $1.45 per pound. Low energy costs over the past few years have also made food more affordable, Purdue said.

“Low food prices can have a ripple effect on other areas of the economy, especially around the holidays when consumer spending spikes,” says Jayson Lusk, head of Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics. “It is likely savings accrued during Thanksgiving will be used to supplement holiday or Black Friday shopping.

“Alternatively, many people might choose to upgrade their Thanksgiving spread, switching to organic meats and vegetables.”

If your family dinner includes a lot of pumpkin pie, you might see your costs go up. Indiana Farm Bureau said a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie filling is up 17 percent over last year and a 9-inch pie shell (two per package) is up 2.5 percent. Stuffing also increased by about 12 percent.

Our Farm World family wishes you a very wonderful Thanksgiving.