October 2011 Weddings
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Thanksgiving

Growing up, my parents always hosted Thanksgiving Dinner, the last one I was able to attend was in 2009 when we flew up for the holiday. The past few years, H and I keep to ourselves and do our own private dinner at home. MIL doesn't really do anything other than if she's invited somewhere, and FIL has family over early in the day around noon but he and H are not close, so there's no pressure to attend things if we don't want to. This year, my parents are in town. They drove their RV down last month and they are staying the entire winter so we decided to.....host Thanksgiving at our house.

What the hell am I doing. First a handmade Halloween costume and now this business...

 

What are your thanksgiving traditions, if you have any? What is you favorite dish? Got a recipe, share it here! (please)

 

 

 

Re: Thanksgiving

  • Growing up, and until I got married we always went to my grandparent's house.  Since they are 3 hours away, and DH's family is close, we do the every-other-year thing since we can't do both in one day.  This year is with DH's family.

    I think my favorite dish is my grandpa's sweet potatoes.  He cuts them up and loads them with maple syrup, brown sugar and marshmallows.  He has ruined a basic healthy sweet potatoe for me.

    Good luck!  How many people will be there?

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  • Well, it will definitely be us, my parents, I'm sure MIL and we are inviting her dad but not sure if she will bring him. BIL and his family if they can make it, I know they have other stops to make. FIL and his wife are invited but they always do a family dinner earlier in the day so we doubt they will come. H's ex-Stepmother and stepbrother adn his 2 kids, if that makes sense, but not sure if they will come or hae other plans.

    So, at most 12 adults and 5 kids. More realistically, 7 or 8 adults and 3 kids.

  • Oh man! That's (potentially) a lot of people.

    We had huge Thanskgiving dinners growing up (anywhere from 30-50 people) at my aunts house, and it was definitely pot-luck style. If you're worried about having the time to make everything, you could always go that route.

    I would definitely try and have a plan of who is bringing what (or what you're making if you're doing it all), and what needs to be heated for how long so you can plan out your oven space. I know reheating things so they're all warm at the same time can be a difficult schedule to master. When we were rolling 50 people deep, we relied on those little candles under the foil pans for that, but last year when DH cooked he just had a schedule on the fridge of what was going in the oven at each time.

    It's exhausing, but fun!
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  • 50 people?! That is insane!

    I'm kind of a control freak so we will see how this goes. The good news is that we have a convection microwave oven that can help out with keeping things warm. I'm going to make the desserts the day before, as well as prep for my stuffing recipe. H is hoping to fry the turkey, provided we can find a frier in time so that should free up a bunch of space as well. And zomg deep friend turkey is sososososooo good. I've only had it once but it was delish.

  • I think H and I are doing Thanksgiving by ourselves this year and I'm afraid it's going to be really underwhelming :(
    H's family Thanksgiving is over the top - his grandmother already has her 20+ Christmas trees set up and they do one big long set up with minimum 25 people sitting down. My family event was always around 20 people and my mom always pulled out the fancy china. If it's just H and I, I don't know if I'll be very motivated to do anything different than our everyday dinner.

    I love green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. Mmmmm.
  • I love sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing.  I love it all!

    Our families only live about 45 minutes apart...our first year, we tried to eat with both of them, and we didn't like it.   So, we alternate years.  I like to at least visit the other family...we may not eat, but I want to go visit with them.  This year, we're eating with DH's family.  Hopefully afterwards, I can get DH to agree to go visit my parents.

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  • quirky75 said:

    I think H and I are doing Thanksgiving by ourselves this year and I'm afraid it's going to be really underwhelming :(
    H's family Thanksgiving is over the top - his grandmother already has her 20+ Christmas trees set up and they do one big long set up with minimum 25 people sitting down. My family event was always around 20 people and my mom always pulled out the fancy china. If it's just H and I, I don't know if I'll be very motivated to do anything different than our everyday dinner.

    I love green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. Mmmmm.

    For us, being alone was really refreshing. Thanksgiving kick starts a busy season for both of our jobs so being able to relax and take it easy was awesome. I hope you wind up enjoying it!
  • I always make stuffing muffins because my sister is gluten free and we can't do the stuffing in the turkey. That's my favorite part. We are hosting thanksgiving this year too but my ILs refuse to come because my family is coming. So it will just be small.
  • Our tradition involves a lot of driving, and it's frustrating. We usually head to H's grandparents' house, about an hour away, on Thanksgiving morning. In the afternoon, we get back on the road and drive 3 more hours to my parents' house for the evening, and then we do a low-key Thanksgiving the day AFTER Thanksgiving. The reason, is that I'm from Nebraska and the football team plays the day after Thanksgiving every year. So we're either at the game if it's at home or watching if it's away.

    This year we decided to skip the whole rigamarole and are going to Mexico. Originally we wanted to leave on Thanksgiving day, but thanks to prices and schedules, we're leaving at 6 a.m. the day after. Now H thinks we still need to go to his grandparents' house on Thanksgiving day, even though we won't be seeing mine at all. It kind of irritates me because my parents moved a month ago and he didn't go to help with me.

    Tangent!

    The only thing I really like at Thanksgiving dinner is turkey because I am a weirdo apparently. I don't like green bean casserole or mashed potatoes or gravy. I only like stove top stuffing. I would rather just have steamed veggies with my turkey and call it a day.
    image
  • We switch off every year between going to my parents place and going to my Aunts. Been doing this since I was little.

    We didn't switch off one year because my Aunts family went to Florida. So we had it with my family and Hs parents (at Hs parents house). It was nice but felt really strange after all these years. H has been going to thanksgiving with me for most of our 12 years.

    Last year we all got together again at my parents (Hs parents included) and having it at my Aunts this year. My family is saying they can't come because of money. It's driving us all crazy. My Aunt offered to put them up in a hotel but I haven't heard anything since. But my parents and their money problems is another thing. H and I will be at my aunts this year (it's in the same city as us).

    As for food I'll have to get back to you on that.
  • My parents don't really do much since my mom got sick. DH's family over celebrates - as they do with most holidays. There is a huge (40-50 people) Thanksgiving for his dad's side of the family around noon. They rent out a church to have it. Then in the evening, they go to his grandpa's house to have dinner with his mom's side of the family. Then usually Friday or Saturday night, they have more of an immediate family thing at his parent's house. It's exhausting to say the least.

    Last year, my MIL made me really mad around this time, so I decided we weren't doing the Thanksgiving. We had a small dinner at our house with my parents. It was actually much less stressful even though I cooked everything, so we're doing the same this year. Our house is a good halfway point between his family's first and second stop, so they're going to stop by in between, and then we'lll have dinner with my parents in the evening.

    I haven't planned the whole menu yet, but we'll have turkey, honey yeast rolls, macaroni & cheese, pumpkin cheesecake, and apple pie for sure!
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