What are you doing this Thanksgiving?
Photo by ilmungo 
It’s nearly Thanksgiving again, and in our house Thanksgiving is an indicator that my birthday is rapidly approaching. Last year I wrote about my deep-seated hatred of turkey. While I maintain my position on that particularly foul fowl, I’m also not particularly fond of the lengthy preparation time associated with it. While some people enjoy this part of Thanksgiving-that is, getting up early and spending all day slaving away in the kitchen-I do not. Since my birthday generally falls the day before or on Thanksgiving, or on Black Friday, spending all day cooking is an especially unappealing prospect. (On my birthday, doing anything that isn’t the hedonistic equivalent of sitting around in my pajamas eating ice cream is lumped into that category of “especially unappealing.”) Since my family combined the two celebrations last year, we decided as a family that we were ready for a change in tradition.
We decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants and celebrate there. Their menu is limited to three tasting menus with wine pairings, and it’s fantastic. Everyone enjoys tasty, top-notch food, we drink excellent wine, and then we go home. No mess, no fuss, and we get to enjoy each others’ company all day. That’s my favorite part of Thanksgiving: good food, good company, good conversation. These are the memories that I treasure. When we go home afterwards, there are no dishes to clean up, no leftovers that need distributing, and best of all, no turkey! (Imagine a fantastic, maniacal, villainous laugh here.)
As for Black Friday, while the rest of America is out pounding the pavement for the post-holiday sales, you’ll find me at home, doing what I normally do. I’ll be spending the day avoiding the crowds, watching “Heroes” on DVD, and doing my holiday shopping online and a little light baking. We’ll also pull out our fake tree, adorn it with our vintage Star Trek ornaments, and fill the house with our favorite Christmas carols. (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, anyone?)
What are your non-traditional traditions?
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I’m working this year. My family got invited to my mom’s coworker’s house. We went last year and I was bored out of my mind. No one talked to me. I decided to work instead. Working 8 hours and getting paid for 12? I’d take that over food any day.
i think i’m just gonna celebrate it with famz..what else can we do.. just stuck with famz and that’s all….
I live in the UK so I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but I personally think that all I have seen of Thanksgiving shows a lot of effort which I really wouldn’t want to bother with. I would probably do the same as you with the restaurant idea – it’s what we do for Chrismas as no one wants to cook for such a large amount anymore. And Christmas sales always annoy me. I shop online all the time as they have good deals and you can stay out of the crowd. Oh and Heroes is brilliant. Strange how alike we seem. =]
Every year we have the families at our place out in the country. Nothing is ever traditional that day! Year before last we had hoola hoop contests after lunch and rode horses… last year we shot hoops and played games and this year after a lunch of finger foods and crock pot dishes, we’ll go on a hay ride down the road to see the pretty fall colors on the trees. Everyone is always invited to spend the night afterwards as well and hang out by a bonfire. THIS IS MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR as we keep it as stress free as possible for everyone.
For the past 2 years, this will be our 3rd, my boyfriend and I have been meeting up with his parents at a local Marriott hotel…they put on a full buffet spread for Thanksgiving and it is always wonderful! This year, the main courses are Roasted Tom Turkey, Almond Crusted Pork Loin, and Rockefeller Crab Cakes. Cost is $36 per adult, and it is so worth not having the ‘traditional’ Thanksgiving hassel!
Might be friends Moms last Thanksgiving…Mom is unable to travel so daughters/ grand kids gonna travel down to her neck of woods for Thanksgiving. Requires overnight stay. So…I will be staying at friends house and keeping the cats company.
working because id rather work then listen to my dads family argue with my moms family over everything
iam going to my familys house and hanging with them all day and becuase i get a week off iam going to my friends house befor and after
Yeah, I admit, it is a real drag to have to get up and do all that cooking. Unfirtunately, I’m the only real cook in the house, so I’m stuck. I live in a small town where restaurants aren’t really that great, either…My daughters are grown, but if it isn’t microwavable, their out of luck!! So each year, I take a deep breath and go about it, all the while telling myself, “they can eat leftovers for the next several days” !!
We’ll leave on Saturday, to visit the in-laws out of state. Unfortunately, no matter how much my MIL hates turkey, and no matter how many times I suggest going out, she’ll roast a 30 pound bird, along with all of the fixin’s. What’s the most depressing about the whole process is that my FIL and BIL’s will be done eating, and back on the couch to watch football before she even gets a chance to sit down and eat what she has cooked.
After that, she’ll do all the dishes (unless I use physical force to get her out of the kitchen), while all of us sit there digesting. Maybe I can convince my SIL to gang up on her this year, and make her take a break!
Cooking at home with just me and my family. Watching spongebob and being thankful for everything the Lord has blessed us with.
I prefer to voluteer at serving thansgiving dinner to the homeless.
I had originally planned to go see my grandmother in Illinois with my family (as we have done the last few years), but that plan fell through because she told us that she was having dinner with other family in Indiana.
I am bouncing from house to house with my husband and daughter to appease parental figures…. I hate cranberry sause, but it’s fun to carve.
My mate and I are driving to Phoenix Arizona and Alburquerque New Mexico to visit friends from Los Angeles.
For thanksgiving i’m goin to florida.
to be with my family.
YAY TOFURKY!
Turkeys are so simple if you don’t stuff them — just use seasonings and onion and celery inside, then they cook themselves. Cook the stuffing in a casserole. Make most things a day or two ahead. Better yet, assign foods to those who come. Someone can bring salad, another those horrid holiday green beans, somebody brings a pie – and don’t forget the wine. Before you know it – you’re done. And ladies — tell the couch potatoes that you will cook but the cook doesn’t have to do the cleanup. If they want leftovers later they have to do dishes. My secret? I cook the turkey the day before and get it all off the bones, layering it in a large pan. With a little broth, covered in the overn, all I do on Thanksgiving is warm it up! Surely nobody will miss the big carrying the brown bird to the table scenario – right?
I’ll be staying at a Villa in Pennsylvannia. 12 of my family members including me will be going down there that week and on Thanksgiving we’ll be cookin up a fierce meal!!!
I’m going up to my mom’s house and am spending some time with her and help cook! It’ll be fun!! =)
Be in HEAVEN! NO MORE SCHOOL WORK! NO more 5 to 7 hours of homework everyday! OMG! Why does Cornell have to torture me to death before I can go there!!???
on thanksgiving i am going to a big house that
has in elevator
staying home with my boyfriends family and cooking a roast turkey pumpkin pie and potato pie and having family over : )
I live in South Florida and I’m driving up with my boyfriend to Jacksonville to be with his family this year. I’ve met them once and they are lovely. One thing I’m not doing is eating turkey… I’m a vegitarian, lol. HAVE FUN EVERYONE!
Staying home, roasting a 24 pounder and watching football. Mmmmm. Turkey. Mmmmm. Leftovers.
Staying at home, Just recently lost my job and my business went under. So I am going to eat the whole turkey and get fat for a while. It is fun when you are gaining the weight, but losing it you will find that inner strength. fuck it!
Totally agree about the time it takes to make the dinner. I don’t want to even eat dinner if it takes longer that 15 min. for me to make. I bought a smoked turkey from an organic farm! All done!
Our Thanksgiving is pretty eclectic since everybody brings their speciality item!
It includes traditional fixins like turkey and oyster stuffing as well as mac & cheese, ham, spinach dip w/pita chips, fresh green beans and cheesecake.
Thanksgiving became my favorite holiday after one quarter of dorm food, and it allows me to spend time with my fam and graze all day!
My family and I are going to have our traditional Thanksgiving at my aunt’s place. This year, I’m working on desserts. I want to surprise my family by making a Turkey shaped yellow cake and some chocolate brownies.
I’m wondering on whether to maybe make it in a shape of a live or cooked turkey. Either way, it’s going to be a new thing this year.
Of course we’ll have fried turkey with greens, salad, and maybe some other goodies. We aren’t sure if we want to do a Turdunken this time or wait till Christmas. Yet enough, we’ll see.
Going to spend thankgiving at my cousin house being bored and playing games
Let’s face it, it’s not where we spend Thanksgiving or what we are eating, but who we spend it with. All of the more negative comments posted already concern having to spend the holiday with people that are unpleasant. Most of them prefer to be alone it seems. To those people, I say reclaim your rightful holiday by choosing a different group of people to spend it with. The choices can be creative: help out at a homeless shelter, local soup kitchen, or something like that. You just might make someone else’s holiday brighter, plus you won’t have to think about your negative relatives. Or, assemble friends and coworkers who you know might not have anywhere else to go and host a pot-luck, or agree to all meet at a restaurant. Even it doesn’t turn out to be great, at least you tried something different and realize the possibilities. My partner and I will order too much food from the local deli (we don’t cook either) and as the holiday gets closer, we’ll surely run into neighbors or friends whose plans fell through at the last minute whom we can then invite over. It always works out.
Not doing anything. Thanksgiving used to be a big deal in my family, but we fell on hard times this year, (the economy and a divorce) and can’t afford to have Thanksgiving.
I will not have any money to go anywhere so I will politely smile at my daughter’s inlaws, her friends, my grandchildren and try to keep my trap shut. I hate Thanksgiving Day. My parents both worked, so that was the day off for both. We cleaned, cooked all day ,ate like hogs and everyone went to look at tv and, since I didn’t like football, I got to wash the mountain of pots and pans and dishes. By the time the kitchen was clean, everyone was ready for a snack, so it began again. It would be late before I got to bed. I did enjoy having my little dinners with my children when we couldn’t afford to go home to my parents’ house. One year I remember, tho’, was the year I could only afford hot dogs and fried potatoes for them. My daughter said it didn’t matter. We ate and that was all that was important. Happy Thanksgiving!!
be at home but I will try to buy a chicken and a beer. A very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours Yamster.
Michael A
We’re having spiral ham – turkey makes my family ill.
I am spending Thanksgiving with my cousin’s and the rest of our family. I am so excited about this Thanksgiving. I plan to have a good time and enjoy my time with my family.
i already had thanks giving since i live in canada, i helped make turkey and i help eat turkey thats basically it.
In Kansas City, there is a big Thanksgiving Dance on Thursday morning on both Kansas side and Missouri side. Hundreds of singles, couples, and whole families go! It’s over about 2pm. Usually, the news crew is there, too, so you may be on TV for the evening news! And you can bring your own appetizers and BYOB! It is SO MUCH FUN, dancing to live bands and singers. You can either dress to the nines, or go casual, no one cares. Everyone’s just there to see old friends and have fun. We used to always have the late Johnny Taylor from Ft. Worth sing every year at the National Guard Armory (“Who’s sneaking out with your ol’ lady, while you’re out making love?”) Then everyone goes wherever they’re going to eat Thanksgiving dinner!
I’m with many of you — having cooked the big dinner all morning for years and washing dishes for 21 relatives who don’t know how to help, I’m over it. I like to make sure that since I’m usually only off for the one day, I want to have some FUN!
HOW TO DO A SPEED-DATE THANKSGIVING DINNER
I buy the turkey breast fresh from Price Chopper and have Wyandotte BBQ smoke it for me overnight ($10), and pick it up the day before. Then I stop by Red Lobster and get some of their cheese biscuits, to just heat up in the microwave for 10 seconds the next day.
Then I run by Sam’s Club and pick up a pumpkin and lemon meringue pies, 3-bean salad in a huge jar, Stovetop Cornbread Dressing, and jar of Pepperridge Farm turkey gravy.
I throw together a green bean casserole (5 minutes). I also open the jars of green olives, black olives, and sweet bread-n-butter pickle chips from Dollar General or Walmart.
Then I make Betty Crocker real potatoes instant mashed potatoes (5 minutes). Take 1 minute to slice the Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, cold in the refrigerator in the can.
Sometimes I’ll even make devilled eggs the day before, with minced onion, mayo, mustard and sweet pickle relish. And stuff some stalks of celery with Philadelphia Cream Cheese with chive & onion.
If I have people over, we all go to the show after we eat, just to have some fun together and make some new memories. Sometimes we adults all go to a Kansas City blues club or old-school club that night, to welcome in the holiday season with a drink or two — Let the Season Begin! I used to live on the Country Club Plaza for 6 years, where they turn on the lights on Thanksgiving evening at 7pm! It’s okay if you live on the Plaza, but I’d hate to be in the gridlock of cars by driving down there. The comedy clubs are all a lot of fun, too, if you need to take your out-of-town company somewhere the next night. We have an Improv at Zona Rosa, and casinos here.
scuba diving with the family along the pacific =)
well i alys go to wok on thanksgiving and then iam going to go to my perents for dinner
My husband and I will cook a big dinner of turkey
ham and all the fixing,s,and all my family will
come spend the day,,laughing,playing the guitars
and I will be happy in a turkey coma until they all
leave,then I will retain all the memories until
Christmas and then do it all over again.
For Thanksgiving I’m Just Going To Stay Home. Lucky Me.
CANT stand the wretch day myself. its just a day, where people cook and eat and stuff themselves silly all day long..
Myself, i would rather cook something simple, and lie before the tv, resting myself for work the next day..
but then you have no leftovers! boo
I’m a good cook but don’t like spending all day in the kitchen for Thanksgiving. A top quality meat market near where I work sells fresh turkeys smoked by the farmer who raised them, along with the best hams I’ve ever had. That’s what we’re having this holiday. Serve the turkey cold, warm up the ham, bake some dressing, heat up some gravy and make mashed potatoes and salad. It’s pretty easy, really, and saves almost the whole day for visiting, watching a little football, and playing with the Wii.
I was going to offer this comment to the blog writer, Jasmine. She might enjoy investing in a vertical turkey cooker. It would run about $25, and lets you cook your turkey a little faster, with great crispy skin. I don’t own one, but I use my vertical chicken rack all the time and it always produces fantastic results. Don’t bother stuffing the turkey–cook the dressing alongside or even after the turkey’s done, if you want to do dressing at all. I think that would simplify your Thanksgiving cooking gig, if you wanted to try it. At any rate, enjoy the day!
My Thanksgiving was in October, and I celebrated it by stripping hideous wallpaper from a room in a house we just bought. Blue roses – blah!
I do everything ahead of time.
I make my pies on Tuesday and freeze them. Cook the turkey on Wednesday and the salads. On Wednesday night the turkey is carved up and stored in the frig.
So on Thursday morning all I have to do is defrost the pies, reheat the turkey and take the macaroni salad out of the frig(always better the 2nd day anyways). The side dishes and gravy are cooked by noon we are sitting down to eat. Then the family snoozes it off while I clean up the kitchen. (I can’t sleep on a full stomach).
Black Friday, I never go near the mall, although I have dropped off people in the early am so they could work that day(I pick them up later and saves them from the insane parking lot). Crazy people with hot coffees and chairs sitting out in the cold at 4am doesn’t even look like fun no matter how much money you think you are saving.
Happy Turkeyday Mike & to all on Yahoo Answers!
Thanksgiving is my absolutely favorite holiday. I have such fond memories of family parties at my aunt’s home. While the feast was sumptuous, even better was the time spent gossiping with family, playing games and hangin’ out interminably. Even cleaning up wasn’t bad with everyone pitching in to help.
I do my best to continue the tradition by inviting family and good friends. We try new and old favorites and everyone brings a specialty to share. Enough of us enjoy turkey, so its worth it to breakout the grill and barbeque the beast, but we also have lots of veggies so our vegan friends have a feast too. We play board games and cards, and everyone takes home the leftovers.
I LOVE Thanksgiving!
Our traditions are changing this year also. My husband and I have gotten married this year and are expecting our second child. Things are crazy in our home!
We just purchased a new home so we are moving. Normally Thanksgiving is at our home and we have MORE than enough food for a zoo. (Mostly because I’m bad at guessing) But this year we are going over to my sisters house for Thanksgiving and I feel a little weird.
Normally Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and great food, but my family has split. My mother and father are no longer together (Married 27 yrs), my brother doesn’t talk to anyone but my father and he married a B+++h (Who has separated him from everyone). I feel stuck in the middle.
I am 26 years old and I feel lost. This is not how I envisioned my family to result to. My mother is wishy washy now and can never make her mind up and I cannot go see my father because my brother moved he and his new wife in with him.
Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday, but now I don’t know.
Since mom passed (this is the 3rd thanksgiving since she passed from lung cancer) I have been traveling back to see my dad. My husband and I go back to Illinois and I cook the meal with my hubby as assistant. Since I come to him my dad will buy what i put on the list and it will be waiting for me when I get there. The turkey will already be thawed. The night before, I will make the pumpkin pie, mince meat pie, and any “salads”. and the day of, I will cook the turkey, mashed potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green bean casserole, and rolls. I know I watched my mom cook thanksgiving dinner for 26 years and yet I still cant make gravy like she did to save my sole! When mom was still with us my kitchen duties included opening the canned food, placing it in a bowl and in the fridge and then getting out of the way. Now that I have two thanksgivings under my belt…I still don’t know how mom did it all… but I am bound and determined that dad will always have his mince meat pie on thanksgiving!
I am going to volunteer to feed the hungry and homeless.
this thanksgiving will be spent working a marathon at work…between 6am thanksgiving morning, and 3pm black friday afternoon (a 33 hour time slot), i will be working 22 hours. 17 of which will be just one long shift…you would think i was a nurse/doctor or something…nope. definitely just work in a grocery store.
Isn’t this “question” chatting? Why can the Y!A rat chat on here, but we can’t???
I’m going with my father and step mother to my great aunt Bonnie’s for thanksgiving feast yet again! Last time I got agitated because there is nothing to do at that old lady’s house! and the kids usually play softball but I don’t beleive I’m doing that
Hi eatmelibs
This is the Yahoo! Answers Blog and the “question” you are referring to is just the title of this blog post. It’s not actually a question that was asked on Yahoo! Answers.
I hope this clarifies things.
Lydia
Yahoo! Answers Editor
u have no life to blog about this.
I cook every year and my sis Brenda cleans up after me. We have another sister who lives in Illinois and is coming to visit. We always enjoy each others company and remember when there was four of us. The oldest one passed away eleven years ago and she loved all holidays and we miss her so much. So I feel very blessed to be able to enjoy life and cook for a crowd.
My son n I will be going to my grandmas house where my parents, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins will be. We eat a big dinner at noon ( turkey, stuffing, potatoes..ALL of it..everyone brings at least one or two things) then of course grandmas pie (yum)
then my mom, grandma n aunts clean up the kitchen, the men sit around watchn football..n the rest of us just visit or whatever. Then all the women sit around the table with the sale ads for the day after and plan where we are all gonna go shopping (this year will be my first time shopping the after TG) then at about 4 or 5, we get the food out yet again, warm it up n eat! less leftovers this way i guess…and then we go home. I love it though. I love to cook and love bein around all the family (most of the time) hehe.
p.s I hate turkey.
I’m going to visit my son and his family in Kentucky. My son was in Iraq,and hurt himself,and had to leave,to come back to the states to have hip surgery. Because he can’t do any traveling,I will visit him.
I’v been unemployed for about a year now, but instead of focusing on myself and, situation. God gave me a vision to help women battered or not year round. And around this time of the year, since 2005 We Virtuous Women Ministries has helped women to get complete Thankgiving and Christmas baskets. God wants us to be a help to each other and doing what the Lord wants us to do helps you stay happy regardless of your situation. You are Blessed because you are here alive, healthy, and obviously still moving around because you were able to write these messages be thankful it could be worse and showing Love is a wonderful thing to do.
Some people are extremely hateful toward this holiday…i understand some people speaking about the long hours of cooking..but come on! Do whatever you like with whomever you want. This holiday is about spending time with people you love and to give yourself some rest and relaxation time before christmas. Nobody says it has to be traditional!
..Well, me and my husband are going to take our time cooking our thanksgiving dinner. We usually wake up early (we do all our shopping n prepping the days before) and cook all day long while we have music blasting and some wine. We then eat first alone and talk and just have fun together until all our friends come over at night to eat the food thats left and drink a whole lot.
I’ll be spending it with my famaily and friends just being grateful for the things in my life that I’ve been blessed with. Nothing better than relaxing, eating great food, and watching football!!!
I’ll be spending it with family but one thing I will not be happy about is having to see a once, living and breathing animal reduced to a cooked carcass as the centerpiece for gathering around and giving thanks. I’m a vegetarian – the only one in my family, unfortunately – but am very proud of my choice to make a statement about compassion and kindness for all beings.
Im going to my aunts house with my family. There should be like 12 of us there. im really excited because I havent seen everyone togetehr in a while. I can wait for Pumpkin pie!!!!!
My family’s tradition is to travel every Thanksgiving and chance we get. We’ve been to plenty of countries, and this will be our fourth or so time going to Mexico. We travel so much, we’ve already planned our next trip for Thanksgiving, Venezuela!
I’ll be at my sister’s house, who is the only one in my family with enough chairs to hold everybody, and all I have to do is bring rolls. Yay!
(Am I the only one who’s sick of the word “fixins”?)
I am going to make the perfect traditional thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s house because I love Cooking, Baking, Roasting you name it. I love it and she has two dishwashers so no mess no fuss I always make pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, dressing, and fresh greenbean casserole ( from scratch no soup n’can) ahead of time, a day or two, so I can focus on the bird. I love cooking everything from scratch. It makes me feel homey which I never feel since I am a working mother who only gets to cook 2 nights a week.
All the family comes my cousins aunts uncles like 20 and we play taboo and clue, charades. Its the best I love family bonding during thanksgiving.
Well, Im a college student at UCLA so I’ll definitely be returning home to my parents and family, and spend the holiday with them eating and telling stories. Oh, and I’ll definitely be sure to hang out with all the friends I left back home
:].
I live in NC but all of my family is in FL. Last year, I was embarrased about my recent break up and most of the members of my family were quick to point out her flaws. I promised that I wouldn’t be there in 2008, and stuck to that promise.
I’m staying in NC and spending the early part of Thanksgiving with a close friend and the evening part with another good friend and her church group.
Well, normally, I would be fixing the traditional Turkey dinner at home for my family, inviting my sister and brother and their kids… over to spend the day, and enjoy every minute of it! But things have changed for me now. Just moved from Utah up here to North Dakota and this is the first year of Thanksgiving that I’m away from family. It will still be great, just different. Funny though, how this has given me the opportunity to reflect on all of the wonderful Thanksgivings ‘gone-by’. !!!
After nearly 40 yrs of dealing with the hassele of cooking & cleaning up Thanksgiving Day.. Cooking for a rapidly growing family,,I have Retired!
When I was younger,, I really enjoyed the hussle & bussel,,My reward was spending time with all my kids, & G-Kids in my home..Now there are just too many of them to fit in any one house,,
So,, each of my 4 daughters now cook for their own families,, & I visit each of them,, eat a little here, a little there,, & Really enjoy the day,,
I also have time to visit friends,, Glad to have turned the “Work” over to my daighters,, works well for all of us,, Christmas will be handled the same way,,
oh I still start the day off watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade..
first of all’i would like to know the meaning of thanksgiving.accordind to the commentaries that i read,if that is the meaning of the word thanksgiving,then the truth is that i have never celebrate it.and if i could be giving the opportunity to celebrate it,it will be a great joy for me.and this is how i would to celebrate it.have a family to adopt me,live a better life,go back to school and be happy with my adopted family.in short i’m a black boy from liberia but in now live in ivory coast because of the war in my country.i’m 15 years old without parents.
Thanksgiving is about two different people coming togeather & having peace instead of hate ,iits what god wanted.
i am going to hang out with my brothers and sisters
i’ve got a non-traditional tradition. we escape the nasty winter weather here and fly down to hawaii. to me, thanksgiving is a week on the beach, snorkeling, scuba diving, tossing a football in the sand, reading magazines in the sun. on thanksgiving night, there’s nothing like catching some football at a poolside bar while you’re drinking a pina colada and going to a late luau. i love it.
well…..my parents are newly divorced and this is the first separate Christmas, so Wednesday night im staying at my mothers and going to her parents house on thruday morning. Then she drops me and my siblings off at my fathers house where we have another thanksgiving dinner, with his side of the family. Then friday my father is taking us to pennsyvania with his girlfriend and we’re visiting her family for the rest of the weekend. The last bit im not too excited about…..but w/e.
eehh, my thanksgiving traditions bounce around. if i’m at my dad’s, then it’s a pretty boring, family get-together thanksgiving.
if i’m at my mom’s, however, then i help make the food, and we go over to our awesome neighbors’ house and combine all the delicious stuff we have
but no matter what, i make sure i get up 15 minutes before the macy’s thanksgiving day parade to eat pumpkin pie (yes, we cheat and make some early, lol) and drink hot chocolate.
well gonna cook,watch football from sun up to sundown and drink beer
for the past I don’t know how many years, my dad’s side of the family had gotten together usually at my house or my uncle’s house for Thanksgiving.
but since my dad’s family is litterally falling apart since my grandpa dies 5 years ago, no one is putting in any effort to do anything this year. T_T
My dad is going over to his fiancee’s family house, so that leaves me with celebrating Turkey day with my mom’s family, which I’m prefectly happy with. ^^
I’ll be eating my “a” off like a cockroach in a restaurant kitchen.
Nothing. I’m not American. Don’t even know when it is.
I live on a ranch in Mexico with my family and a lot of extended family also lives here. Every year for as long as I can remember the whole ranch gets together and has a big dinner. All th ladies contribute by making pumpkin pies fruit and vegetable salads, turkeys, potatoes and all the side dishes. Lots of relatives come from the U.S and from a town a few hours away.
They stay at our houses and we have a blast.. The Tuesday before all the men go on a quad/motorbike ride and we use that day to make our pies. Thursday night the young teeneage girls put on skits and plays
some of the aunts and children also doing them..usually I Love Lucy or Carol Burnett skits. Friday we have relays and volleyball and basketball tournaments..that night we have a dance..mostly round and line dances..also Mexican and some waltzes..we all have hot tea and cookies and the little kids fall asleep in a corner on blankets..Saturday evening we have a carnival and each family does one or two booths..afterwards their is an auction of things that each family deems valuable..the proceeds go to improving our gym or school.. Sunday we have a singalong..It’s my favorite time of year but this year hardly anyone has jobs and can’t afford to come down as all the uncles work in the U.S..the majority canceled this years celebration..the rest are very disappointed but most will still have a traditional dinner and maybe a dance..maybe next year things will be better for everyone and we’ll be able to do it again..Its still fun but not nearly as much..
I don’t really know. Maybe I will get a rotisserie chicken and make boxed stuffing and stay home. It’s a bird isn’t it? It works for me. Last Christmas, I had Mexican food from the only open place in town. This is my day off. Why would I want to spend it with my family? I would rather have a quiet day at home alone.
I feel the same way. Thanksgiving can be great because of the family, and giving thanks. I especially love the good holiday movies, and the parade!
I am just frustrated and annoyed by the obbession with the food. I like some of it, the cranberrys and veggies, but the cooking and all that almost takes away from all the other special things that could come with this Holiday. I know a couple who gets together with some friends and family and they all drive together to the parade every year. Or like when people watch the peanuts thanksgiving and put up the holiday stuff. Its just stressful when it cannot be enjoyed.
I understand some of what you say.
But all in all you sound like one miserable person with all sorts of deep seated issues. You make a turkey or not and all is well. You stay home and make a roast, cook a couple of lobsters….. whatever. You go out. You go to someones house.
What does a birthday have to do with anything?
You definitly have some sort of deep seated issue that has nothing to do with turkey. If you have health insurance they might cover counseling and drugs.
I’ll be alone for the first time ever. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but family is in another state & I don’t have enough time off work to visit. So, I’m looking for volunteer opportunities in Kansas City. Maybe I’ll get dinner to go at the grocery store…prepared ahead.
It’s very nice to see everyone’s posts that are looking forward to visiting family & friends. Heartwarming!:)
Please count yourself LUCKY if you have extened family that will brighten your day! Being unable to do all the work any more , sometimes family forgets you if your not able to keep up!! So, PLEASE feel lucky if any family includes you too!
We do the traditional Southern dinner. Someone cooks a turkey or ham. My grandmother makes cornbread dressing and everyone else brings what they want. We sit around eating then the men go to the livingroom and veg in front of the tv. The women sit in the kitchen and talk about things that can only be said without men or kids around. The last few years, a few of us would offer to take the kids to the movies while the others clean the kitchen. This year we will be going to see “Bolt”.
We do the traditional Southern Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. I had attempted to do Thanksgiving and Christmas as my house – but found it too challenging with both sides of the family attending. So, for several years now, my in-laws handle the Thanksgiving meal. The meal is always wonderful – that’s our only real time to visit with everyone. It seems that we are heading straight to the kitchen immediately following the short meal, and will clean the kitchen for over 2 straight hours. There are 8 of us, and it feels like we have more memories of standing washing dishes than enjoying one another’s company.