Thanksgiving

So what is everyone doing for thanksgiving? For years I always did Thanksgiving and had a zillion Family and friends over. The first Thanksgiving I did I had my whole family and my Husband whole Family it was about 57 people if I remember right -I was sick to my stomache for weeks prior to the event over nerves as each year passed it did get easier and had no promblem asking for help by then (LOL) since I am the oldest out of 4 children and my Mom passed away in 1992. About 3 years ago my sister Debbie who lives with my Dad did thanksgiving and then my brother Mike had his turn so we had to travel to the Boston area which is no big deal. Then My sister Chris came up with an Idea for evryone going to eat at the Concord Inn in Concord Ma at $50 dollars a plate.. So this year I have deicided to stay at home with my Husband and my 2 children (YIPPEE) no traveling- no cooking for a zillion people and I have to say. I am so excited to stay home and Just cook for the 4 of us!! I am going to deep fry the turkey this year....

At 6pm at a home in Oxford Ma there is this really nice man whom must really love Xmas-- He dress's up like Santa and his wife as Mrs Claus and a sleigh of horses comes down the street and ends up at his house with a Police escort and there is a chairs for for Mr-Mrs Claus to sit and the whole yard and his home is covered in lights with people dressed as elves and the grinch and snowmen and etc.. and they pass out Hot choc- and cookies and the kids wait in line to sit on Santa's lap and each child gets a toy-- 2 years ago my son and daughter got 2 huge pillows that where in a shape of snowmen -- I think he must buy the items at Walmart after Xmas -since walmart tags are on the stuffed animals and stuff -that he gives out and he does this all for free -sometimes the line is about 2 hours long -but it is so worth it since my kids think he is the real Santa and and elf takes your pic and then sends it to your house--how nice is that --there is a spot in heaven for this man...

When is Thanksgiving in the US anyway? It must be coming up soon...

Wow! He is so kind to do that!

This year we'll probably be going to my MIL's house. She lives alone since my FIL died and we like to spend time with her (she's great to all of us). We usually split the cooking duties. I make stuffing and sometimes the turkey, too, but that's it since she and Scott both love to cook and any friends who come always bring food, too. It's not a huge event, but since there are 6 in my family, plus my MIL, plus two or three family friends, it ends up feeling like there's a lot going on.

We'll probably also stop by my mom and dad's house. They live just a few blocks from my MIL's, but my mom has decided to opt out of any high stress cooking or hosting the past few years. There's nothing wrong. She just decided that it was a PITA and stressed her out and she'd rather relax. So we won't be eating with her. And since my dad doesn't like crowds (and my four kids count as a crowd when they're all together) they probably won't come to dinner with us at my MIL's. I suspect the kids will spend time with my parents over the weekend, though. At least the older two will. The babies will probably have the plague by then and be in quarantine.

Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday in Nov. in the US. So this year it's on the 27th. The businesses hate when it's that late in the month because they depend on people deciding to go shopping every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas and fewer shopping days means lower profits for them.

Oh the santa and mrs claus sound wonderful, we don't have anything like that around here. Just the three hour lines at the mall.... my mom is a sucker and takes them, not me I refuse to pay 19.99 so they can tell a very poor likeness to santa what they want and get a really crappy 3x5 picture, lol.

I don't cook (but deep fried turkey is awesome! and the only fried food we eat). We still have to eat twice though, once at my moms and again at MIL's. I love thanksgiving, it's right behind Halloween in my list of greatest holidays.

I really envy all of you that live close enough to family to visit easily and maybe even see both sides of the family. We're doing my side this year. I'd love to have people here, but my dad lives in the most central location. It's a 2.5 hour drive south for us, assuming no weather problems. My brother drives 2 hours north to get to Dad's.

Since my mom and sister have passed away, and my grandmother is too old to cook (she wants to, but with her vision she can't measure or set the oven to the correct temp any more), I have the majority of the cooking. My dad will get the turkey in th eoven, but when we get there it'll be my husband and I doing potatoes, rolls, veg, carving the turkey, making gravy, etc. It's really hard to do this sort of thing when it's not your own house.
This year I'm bringing pumpkin and pecan pies (2 of each), cranberry sauce, and some sort of aquash or sweet potato dish. I have a recipe for a sweet potato crisp that I've been wanting to try so I might try that.

Oh, and we have never done a Thansgiving "dinner" but have always eaten at about 12:30. At about the time we get cleaned up, people are wanting to get out leftovers and make sandwiches, try a different pie, etc. Humbug, I say.

We are going to my Aunt's house this year. I normally do Thanksgiving at my house,and she does Christmas Eve, this year she gets both. The whole family will be there, usually about 100 of us or so. We used to do Thanksgiving at my granny's, but she passed away 16 months ago.
We will probably be having the usual, Roasted Turkey, smoked turkey, Fried turkey( IF they do not set it on fire again ths year), and I am cooking a Turducken. DH or my Dad will do a smoked brisket, and someone will do a roast. Then there is the sides...OMG everyone brings something and we eat ourselves into a coma.

BTW Turducken-Boneless chicken stuffedwith Crawfish dressing stuffed inside a boneless duck stuffed with dressing, stuffed inside a Turkey with dressing, all boneless, slices like a roast....YUMMY!

How do you get 100 people inside of a house? I am being serious, here.

We do it every year, for Christmas and thanksgiving, weddings and funerals. They kind of flow from the livingroom, to the kitchen and onto the backporch....sometmes into the yard.

Oh, ok. We don't normally have the use of the outdoors here in northern MI in the winter months. When we eat here, we put all the leftovers on tables in the screen porch and don't even have to use the fridge.

I used to enjoy Christmas and Thanksgiving so much. I have dne them at my house. Sometimes my MIL would have one or the other, sometimes we would drive to my Grandparents house when they lived down south for one or the other.

when they moved back home, I would go over there and cook. And we would split the day between the 2. (they are a half mile apart)

Since BR has 3 siblings, and then you add my 4 kids, one sisters 3 kids, anothers 1, and a grandmother, its a pretty full house,

Then my family is fairly large. And since my grandmother died and my grandfather remarried I could care less about being over there. But now BR works on Thanksgiving, and honestly, I dont like my mother enough to want to deal with it. She thinks she is the best cook ever.

The last few years Thanksgiving ended up just being my kids, BR and my dad would drive up from the South. of course I would have to invite my mother since she is single and noone else likes her either.
It always made for misery for me. SInce Bow has a birthday on the 13th, my dad came this week and I was looking forward to a enjoyable thanksgiving. ME and the kids, BR for lunch/dinner, what ever before he went to work. and I was going to cook Chicken nad Dumplings and that was about it. Maybe fry a chicken. Make a nice cheap dinner. That was my goal.

But poor pitiful mother is insistant on cooking at her house. I am NOT thrilled. For me its just a waste of food that I nor my kids will eat. I dont like her dressing, (we dont do stuffing..), I hate the way she butchers my favorite pie. (I call it trailer park pie. its supposed to be chocolate Merangue(sp) she makes jello pudding and coolwhip in a graham cracker crust... ), she inists on duck, even though NOONE else will eat it, (to the point of when we used to have 50 plus people, my grandfather, BR and I would take turns cutting peices off and feeding them to the dogs so she wouldnt get mad and show her ass...), all kinds of crap.
Plus I get to hear all day how mean I am to my kids, and 'overhear' her telling Rayley that I am a bad mother. Not to mention her correcting me when I try to disipline them.

My biggest hope is that one of my kids pukes all over her spotless house, and I have to go home early.

I used to cook 20 plus pounds of banana pudding, fry a turkey, bake one, do a ham, Chicken and Dumplings, enough dressing to choke a horse, all the stuff from our garden (10 plus dishes), homemade bread, 3 pecan pies, lemon pies, cakes, the whole nine yards. I would cook for 2 solid days, taking naps at the kitchen table till the timer would go off. I loved it! I would end it all with hunting that evening till dark, come in and eat again. But she has ruined it for me.

Sorry, I am just not looking forward to it.

for my MIL's we decided since BR and a BIL both work on Thanksgiving, and the dinner itself is just too expensive, we will all pitch in on Saturday, and do a nice lunch. Plus I like them.

Lori, here at Christmas, we have been known to play football or basketball in our shirtsleeves on Christmas day.. LOL Sometimes its cold, like in the 40's.

Thanksgiving and Christmas used to be so wonderful! My mom hosted Thanksgiving and my aunt hosted Christmas. Both of them have passed on and, although I am not sad, I am struggling to find a tradition of my own. I love to cook. I have one uncle who lives around the corner who always makes duck, he can't stand turkey. I plan to spend time with him.

My close friends are making tacos and laughing about it. They don't want to do the traditional thing. One plan for me is to do part traditional and then find something gourmet or exotic in desserts. I don't have a problem hanging out here at home but it's just so different. I remember my mom's last holiday. She made incredible turkey and dressing. She was getting around in a wheel chair by then, mostly. It suddenly came to me that she could still do the dressing. I asked her if I brought everything into the livingroom, would she make it? You should have seen her eyes light up! I swear it was the best dressing ever!

Although I love to eat out, I just have to have leftovers around so we have always cooked no matter what.

If I was in a better financial position, I would go to Houston and Louisiana for the holidays. All of them, lol.

I hope you all have great holidays. Treasure your family. One of the things I liked about Christmas was we would make sure we bought the kids great toys. Then we would all go over to my cousin's house, all the kids in the family and we would stay there for three or four days, eating, playing the video games and with other toys. One niece got an easy bake oven once and managed to slice one of those little cakes into 14 pieces so everyone could taste! She was so proud because we were oooohing and awing over her skills that she smiled for the rest of the night.

I wish there were more women in my family and that they could help cook, bring dishes, etc. My sister doesn't really cook, but she'll bring rolls, olives, and pickles. But it's so much more fun when we have Thanksgiving with DH's side. I have 2 sister-in-laws who love to cook, plus MIL who is a great cook, and it's so much easier and more enjoyable. I feel like part of a team rather than feeling like I'm a slave. Last year we were at MIL's house, and I heard through the grapevine afterwards that my Grandma (92) was very hurt and felt that we should cater to her a little more in her golden years. OMG, the guilt. Because if I'm not there doing the cooking it will be a regular old fend for yourself day for my Dad (and Grandma lives just down the road from him, less than 1/4 mile). Now I am determined to cook her a Thanksgiving dinner every year until she runs out of Thanksgivings, and then maybe we'll alternate every other year between here and MIL's house.

Did I mention I don't cook a damn thing? LOL
Lori, it is nice to be able to do both families, however it has it's drawbacks. Whose ever we go to last gets mad that they were 'second' and then they compare down to the minute how long we spend with each side and complain if maybe we spent 5 more minutes one place than the other. Christmas is even worse and the guilt comes very thick and makes it hard to sit back and enjoy.

On another note.... Hubby's company use to give everyone a turkey, which was awesome. The last two years they have given 25.00 vouchers towards a turkey (or anything else... you can use it at the store or but it in the bank) which was even better. We save the turkey for a few months and have a spring thanksgiving as well. He got the voucher last Friday and he LOST it!!!!!!!!!!!! This is why I handle all the money and never give him more than a dollar or two at a time. he can lose anything. I'm sure he will find it.... the day after it expires.

OMG tara!! that sucks!!

BR will get a turkey for Christmas. hopefully. LOL

I had more than one reason for not wanting to do a huge dinner. Noone can afford it, least of all my mom. and honestly, I dread being around her. LOL I sure cant afford it, for me to do a REAL dinner it costs a few hundred bucks. I will be glad when I can get back to doing a huge dinner. Maybe next year, if we get ahead enough to build on a livingroom. We dont have the room right now to do anything.

Lori, I know what you mean. I prefer it to be fun and enjoy it. At my MIL's, I do most of the cooking and one sister in law and MIL do a few of their own dishes. . the other is in charge of "the stuff we are too good to do" like peel taters, pick up trash, open jars etc. LOL she doesnt cook, and so she does all the grunt work. Its a big joke.

And before my grandmother died i was in charge of those meals after she got sick. Although my mom hated that. LOL

Well, the last few years we have done Thanksgiving at my house. It's too much work and expense for mom to put on a meal like she used to. So we get all the food and I usually tell mother that she can bring a dessert so she feels like she contributed to the meal. We invite my brother who is a confirmed old bachelor. One of my sisters doesn't live around here, the other will only have holiday meals with the people from her church. I am not sure about the in laws this year. One of my SILs (the one who lives in town here) invited her family to our Thanksgiving last year. She does not and cannot cook and if she did you wouldn't want to eat it (I know, I have tried her food). Not only that she has no idea how to cook for a crowd. The one time that she had a meal at her house, she peeled 6 potatoes to make mashed potatoes for 8 people! I usually peel a 10lb bag! She made 1 small box of stuffing for 8 people? Anyway she invited herself and family to our Thanksgiving last year. My family (my mom, dad, brother and Kris the kids and I) usually have a lot of fun. We talk at the table while we're eating, joke around, etc. When my SIL and her husband and family came over last year first of all the kids were bad...they were running and crashing into stuff and I had put the Christmas tree up the night before for them so they could see the lights and stuff. They loved it but they were climbing under it, pulling decorations off it, etc. My SIL was letting them have free reign. My SILs husband was ignoring everyone and sitting in the livingroom by himself watching TV, and my SIL or her husband didn't even try to make conversation with my parents, it was awful! My parents are practically the nicest people you will ever meet and my hubby has said over and over again how glad he is to have them for in laws. I told my hubby this year that if she tries to invite herself again that our plans are already set. If she wants to do something at her house the day after or before Thanksgiving thats fine but I am not having them ruin my family Thanksgiving anymore. We can go to her house and have dinner and then go get something to eat afterwards. lol Anytime she has invited us for dinner there is no where near enough food. They have the food and can afford it, it's just that she has no clue that people need more than one tablespoon of mashed potatoes. Or one chicken drumstick. My husband always stops somewhere for us to get something to eat after we leave there from having dinner. Pretty silly huh?

Gosh, Kelly!
It's amazing that parents can allow their kids to be that unruly. How uncomfortable for you. You options, hunger or chaos, just doesn't seem fair.

My friend and I will be cooking here. We always do fried turkey, but will also have many vegetarian dishes too this year. My daughter will be home from college and is bringing two friends One of them is a vegetarian. I am putting my friend in charge of those dishes. She is going to make humus, tabouli, falafel (don't know how to spell that lol), lentils, homemade pita bread, and not sure what else. I will make all the traditional items, including pies and whatnot.
We will not be seeing our oldest daughter this year. She and her hubby can't leave Florida and we can't get to them. They have been married 3 years and this will be their first holiday alone. We won't get to see them for Christmas either. We have no family in this state, so it will be just us and my friend's family (they live here with us) for both holidays.

Oh Kelly -- what a bummer that you have to plan a meal stop on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner! I actually went to a wedding once where there wasn't enough food to go around and a bunch of us ended up leaving early and grabbing a burger.

I have a big extended family, tons of relatives and a long time ago the holidays were more about the getting together and the meal. So we always had enough food for plenty of seconds and leftovers for next days lunch. The funny thing is that she is a very social person and loves to entertain! You would think being the type of person who loves to make up reasons to invite people over that she would know how to feed them... I on the other hand am a bit more introverted to her extroverted personality and entertain sparingly. I like to entertain close family but not every person that makes my aquaintance. I make sure no one leaves my home hungry. That's all part of the Thanksgiving tradition everyone being to full to get up from the table lol, but not at her house..

Kelly, is your SIL a slow learner or something? I would feel so bad to run out of food that I would overcompensate every year after that! Besides, half the fun is having leftovers the next day! And the kids running around my tree? Forget that. It's one thing if I accidentally drop a favorite ornament and it breaks. I get over it, but kick myself around about it for a while. But your kid is not going to roughhouse around and break one. Oh no, he is not!

We don't fuss about running out of food when we are over there, but you would think she would notice that her brother, my husband a 6ft4in tall 275 lb man has 2 tablespoons of mashed potatoes on his plate hah! (i almost laugh out loud)
We only went over there once for Thanksgiving, ever since then I have had any real Holiday meals at my house or we make the big parts of the meal turkey, potatoes, etc and bring it down to my moms (not a big deal cause she lives two houses down from here). But SIL does invite is over for dinner a couple times throughout the year and every time we go over to her place for dinner on the way home we go to either McCarthy's sub shop afterwards or go home and make something to eat. I can understand her kids being excited about the holiday and the tree and stuff, but her oldest is 7 which is old enough to know better and not be pulling ornaments off my tree and things like that) the youngest who is almost three is just imitating and copying his older brother.. I think she doesn't want to be seen as being a mean parent, but let me tell you when it gets to the point where her children are acting out and other people are embarrassed for her, then she could discipline them and people would be thanking her. At that age my children would have only had to do that once and that would be the end of it. I remember once when they were little telling them to behave in the store while we were grocery shopping and said if they didn't we would leave. They didn't listen and I ended up leaving the whole cart of groceries right there and hauling them off to the car. They didn't go shopping with me for a couple months after that, everytime I would go I would tell them why I wasn't taking them with me. When I finally did allow them to go, they were good as gold. When I told my sis in law that story she looked at me horror struck and couldn't believe I did that. But yet, I never had a problem that way more than once with mine, and she encounters it every time. She even admits that she buys them something everytime shes in a store whether it be a department store grocery store, just so they will listen to her in the store. If it's Walmart she buys them a toy, if it's the grocery store she gets them junk food and lets them at eat before it's even paid for. She does end up paying for it, but I was brought up until you pay for it then it's not yours. No wonder why they are bratty though..

It is very kind and sweet of you not to mention the small portions. I don't know if I could hold back. Would have to at least suggest sharing dishes. Or comment... Like, "Sweetie, Joe is such a big eater. Do you mind if we contribute to the dinner sometimes?" Or, "Girl, who gonna feed those 2 tablespoons of potatoes to? You invite us over for hors d'oeuvres?" Or "Little Joe Jr spits out more potatoes than this!" "On the way home we always stop and get something to eat because we don't want to put a strain on your budget."

Note: you have to remember that one of pearly's favorite quotes is "if you can't say something nice about someone, sit right here by me!"

lol I need to take you to dinner with me pearly! As far as the meal, I just think she is clueless, but don't dare say anything because I don't want to hurt her feelings. I just think it's odd that someone who entertains as much as she does and is as social as she is doesn't know that she is starving her guests!
If she knew she would probably be mortified. Even though there are many differences between her and I, and I get frustrated with her and the other SIL of my 3 SILS, I don't want to hurt her, and I think she would be insulted. Going to the sub shop seems like a small price to pay. But it's one of those things we kind of dread and make jokes about during the year.

I am a classic over-cooker. My mother always did the parties, and always had waaaayyyy too much food. I have followed in her footsteps. I can't help it! LOL!

This year we are having my mil and sil and bil over. Hubby's nephew may come too, but we probably won't know that until the last minute. The challenge this year is cooking for my mil. She has kidney failure and high cholesterol, so the diet is extremely restrictive. I was thinking of cooking a turkey breast for her and a full stuffed turkey for us. The mashed potatoes are easy, I just need to soak the potatoes for a few hours to leech the potassium out of them. I'm trying to get in touch with my sil for other ideas though! I hate the renal stuff because it tends to be bland.