What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

[jingle]

It's two weeks until Thanksgiving … what are your plans? Are you having any turkey? What are family traditions? What are some of your favorite things to be thankful for?

Oh, I hope lots of people will give some answers to this …. pretty please

[tic chick]

hey jingle!

i love thanksgiving!

i always make thanksgiving dinner, even if it's only for two people, like it will be this year. only my son and me, unless my daughter gets the day off from a special detail she's working on for the tsa at metro airport. then 3 of us. my son usually goes out shopping friday morning, especially if he's found some deals for black friday.

i buy an organic turkey, i hope they will get cheaper this year. along with that, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing that i will make my own croutons out of organic bread, whole cranberry sauce with orange juice and grated ginger, maybe sweet potatoes and a half chessecake, half pumpkin pie (cheesecake on the bottom). i've made this pie the last 30 years, ever since i found the recipe in the newspaper. everyone in my family loved it and will not eat only pumpkin pie anymore! i'll buy enough turkey for about 3 days of leftovers, cause that's about all i can take .

we eat around 3 or 4 and if anyone is hungry later...well, there's leftovers...lol. i love cutting the bread for the croutons and drying them in the oven. i love to making everything from scratch.

i love my children. i am thankful they are healthy and working and doing ok.
i am thankful for my dishwasher because i would be washing dishes for 2 days after thanksgiving.
i am thankful for every day i am here to enjoy life.

happy thanksgiving, jingle! AND ALL!
jeannie

[houghchrst]

I have a love/hate relationship with Thanksgiving. It is a very stressful time of the year for me.

But....this year I put in for a Thanksgiving dinner basket with the food bank so I won't have to worry about spending so much money on food for dinner but as of yesterday my freezer is loaded with a big ham and a large turkey breast thanks to some neighbors so we will be able to have thanksgiving dinner. It will most likely be me, jared, brandon, and my oldest brother. He stops in for every holiday. Only the one out of three. The other two are doing their own thing as far as I know. I found my mother's stuffing recipe the other day so I am going to try to simulate it

I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and food in the larder lol. I am thankful that my boys are healthy. I am thankful to be able to give my time to help the voiceless animals.

I hope so too Jingle

[jingle]

Just my two cats will be with me for Thanksgiving dinner. We will have a tiny turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, cole slaw, green beans AND corn. That will be good and will provide lots of leftovers. I love a turkey sandwich!
This has been our Thanksgiving for many years now.

[agate]

I'll be enjoying the peace and quiet too, as I've done during Thanksgiving for many years as well.

It's an opportunity to be glad I'm free of obligations such as having to be cheerful and upbeat among people who happen to be family--I've known quite a few people whose Thanksgivings are like that. They suffer through them. Sometimes there are bitter family quarrels. There's almost always entirely too much rich food.

I'm glad too not to have to cook. I like cooking well enough and often made Thanksgiving dinners in an earlier life. But nowadays cooking just isn't so very easy.

Ever since MS came along, my Thanksgivings have been very quiet.

I like quiet.

[agate]

I didn't mean to be a threadkiller here. My post might have been more of a downer than I intended.

I should add that in recent years one of my neighbors and I who use the same service for grocery ordering and delivery are without grocery deliveries through that service during Thanksgiving week (as well as at least 3 other weeks of the year--Christmas, New Year's, July 4--plus any times when it's too icy on the roads).

She and I will be getting together on Monday here at my computer and ordering through Instacart. Then on Friday after Thanksgiving groceries will be delivered. I'll pay and she'll reimburse me for her part. I'll take her groceries up to her. She's 97 and has no way to get out to a store, really.


She and I don't like having to go for two weeks without grocery deliveries, and so we've worked this out. She enjoys seeing the items she's ordering on the computer screen.

[jingle]

Agate -- thank you for responding. I am always so delighted to see a new post when I visit this site, and I didn't see yours as a threadkiller.

I'm alone and I appreciate the quiet and peace.

[houghchrst]

By no means a thread killer agate. I am of two minds about thanksgiving. If my sons weren't around I prolly would just skip the holidays LOL. Too stressful. I will enjoy my two boys and some good food. When I am alone, and I know one day I will be, I might cook one of my favorite foods and watch movies with my animals.

[agate]

I've had many very splendid Thanksgivings before MS. Turkey and everything else, right down to the mince pie. Or the pumpkin pie. Or both!

[houghchrst]

I remember huge holidays together with cousins up in northern lower michigan, middle of the woods cabin. When my mom was alive she always loved the holidays and kept us kids together and made great huge meals. CJ and I would have to make the rounds to each other's family so we ate at a number of places. Truly I miss it. If I was able I would do the same but physically, mentally and financially just can't do it.

I got my letter saying I can pick up my thanksgiving dinner on Monday, that will give me plenty of time for my turkey to fridge thaw.

Anybody make their own cranberry sauce? My mom would buy cranberries and oranges and I would have to run them through the hand grinder, peels and all. I could never get into it but everyone else loved it.

[jingle]

I remember huge holidays with piles of relatives … so long ago.

We have church on every Wednesday night, but this Wednesday is the day before Thanksgiving and many people will be traveling or otherwise tied up.
So we're having service on Tuesday night and everyone is supposed to bring a pie! We'll have service in the church basement with pie and coffee.
That sounds like fun. But I don't make pies. What should I do? Bring some brownies? Some cookies? Buy a nice pie somewhere? aaggghhhhhhh

[tic chick]

hey all !

chris, i make my own cranberry sauce. looks like your mom made the fresh version. i make the cooked version that's on the back of the packages of fresh cranberries, but with my own modifications. instead of all water, i use half water, half orange juice. i also think the recipe calls for a cup of sugar. i reduce that to half a cup of sugar, i find that makes it plenty sweet. after the mixture cooks, i add some grated fresh ginger, to taste. then i refrigerate it. one year a friend invited me to her new year's eve party and asked me to bring a side dish. i made the cranberry sauce because she was having a roast pork loin and cranberry sauce goes very well with that. i had a whole pomegranate in the fridge, so i pulled it apart and took out all the seeds and added it to the cranberry sauce the last few minutes of cooking. it worked so well! people noticed the pomegranate seeds and asked what they were. i told them and they asked where i got the recipe and i said i just did it to be a little different. they all liked it.

jingle, i think bringing cookies or brownies or something else that is in the dessert category is fine. not everybody likes pie and not everybody eats dessert. i think brownies cut up in small pieces and cookies give people a choice. i like a little something sweet after dinner, but a whole slice of pie is not in my usual eating pattern. i will have pie on thanksgiving, but otherwise, no. i think anything you bring will be appreciated .

agate, i didn't find your post a thread killer, just an honest account of how life changes for all of us. when my kids were young, it was always just our nuclear family for thanksgiving. when my daughter went to college, she would always come home for thanksgiving, which was a happy time for me because i missed her so much. after i separated from my husband, we either had dinner here or where ever my youngest daughter lived, always with my husband present. now that my daughter lives in new york and doesn't come home for thanksgiving, and my youngest works for the tsa and has to work during the busy thanksgiving travelling days and my husband has died, i only cook for my son and myself, mostly because i like to and we have leftovers for several days and i don't have to think of, "what's for dinner?". life has changed for my family, also.

generally, i think the media and tv movies all promote this idea of an idyllic holiday season, with families happily gathering together. yes, there is too much rich food, too much food in general. all this gaiety affects us subconsciously and we have high expectations for the holidays. i think whatever we feel like doing is fine.

and gag me with a spoon with those syrupy sweet hallmark movies.

thank you all for sharing and caring,
jeannie

[agate]

tic chick, I recall making cranberry sauce. I followed the package directions too, but cut down on the sugar. It was fun waiting for the berries to start popping, and they were such a pretty shade of red.