The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend is fairly quiet around the Tobin house — or at least as quiet as a family with 13 kids, 28 grandchildren and a great-grandchild can be.

But when the American Thanksgiving rolls around in November, their house is filled to the brim with family, friends and neighbours. They're all there to remember a fire that destroyed their home 43 years ago.

In March 1972, Marie Terese Tobin, her husband and 13 children moved to Stoney Point, Ont., from Detroit. A short time later, a fire burned most of their home to the ground. That same night their neighbours made sure they had food, clothing and a place to stay.

As a thank-you, the Tobins opened their home for the American Thanksgiving, a tradition that continues to this day.

"You cannot believe what the neighbours did for us," Tobin said. "Our home was destroyed and they had a house in Stoney Point that was all ready for us that same night with pyjamas, everything ready for the first night's sleep out of our home."

The family stayed in that home until November, with the community sharing what they had with them and keeping the family's surviving furniture in their barns.

Tobin was a teacher in Detroit when the family decided to move to Stoney Point. She wasn't a stranger to Canada though. She'd first started coming to Stoney Point, with its location on Lake St. Clair and wide-open fields, more than 80 years ago and has lived in the community for more than 40 years.

Even today, Stoney Point is a place where everybody knows each other. It's the kind of place where people ask about your family and the local church acts as a meeting place every Sunday.

"Some of the people have come for 43 years, we've had other fine people that moved in and they come too." Tobin said. "They're more like relatives than friends."

On Thanksgiving Day, guests start coming to the Tobins' during the afternoon, often staying late into the night, or in some cases until the next morning. The Detroit Lions football game provides the background music and conversation often turns on the Lions play.

Five massive turkeys are needed to feed everyone, and friends often donate their ovens in order to make sure dinner is hot and ready.

"We farm out our turkeys to other people's ovens. Should we need another one, it doesn't matter," Tobin said. "There are ovens awaiting us and that's why we are able to have the size of Thanksgiving that we do."

At 92, Tobin has conceded most of the cooking duties to her children. But she's still in charge of the gravy.

"There's all of the fixings. My boys and girls are wonderful cooks, but they still reserve the gravy for mother. So all I do now is gravy," Tobin said.

From their first community Thanksgiving, the Tobins' dinner has always been about giving thanks. Any sadness with the fire is long gone. In fact, Tobin said there wasn't much sadness in the first place.

"When I watched each bedroom go up in flames, I said, 'Thank you God. That could be my children,'" Tobin said. "When you look at it from that perspective. We weren't devastated. We just wanted to get our house back and we did; With the help of the Good Lord and a lot of people."