Excited that it’s our turn to host this year. We rotate so it’s just about every 4 years so we travel most years. Happy to be home. We’ll have 19, I think. and dh does most of the cooking. I do much of the shopping, decorating, prepping, etc. Two relatives stay with us, and my d’s who live out of town will be here too. More than the actual meal, what I find a bit stressful is finding activities for such a large group that appeal to young, old, etc. If the weather is good, I’ve got some good ideas for walks in scenic areas; when the weather isn’t good, it’s tougher. Modern art museum for the high school junior? Not a big hit.
Dh makes a rice stuffing that’s fabulous. In addition to turkey, he makes a prime rib (since he doesn’t like turkey). Salad, veggies, a sickly sweet yam dish, roll and, of course, lots of pies round out the meal.
It’ll only be 3 of us this year, but I’m sure we’ll Skype with S1, DIL, and grandbaby sometime during the day. S2 will probably get leftovers to take home with him. Not sure about sides yet.
Our daughter is bringing three “orphans” home with her, kids who live far away and can’t afford plane tickets. Rooms are open because S1 is heading to gf’s house from Portland and S2 is orphaned in Indiana.
There will be 8 of us total and dessert already has 8 pies planned. D asked for us to make way more mashed potatoes this year (we ran out last year) and I’ll try to sneak more butter into the mix. It’s definitely one of my favorite days of the year.
I don’t know the whole menu yet but do have my Friday meals planned - pie for breakfast, turkey cranberry and stuffing sandwich for lunch, another sandwich and pie for dinner.
This year we travel to my sister’s and there will be 12 of us, unless my nephew brings some teammates. Two of my nieces are on the west coast and will stay and celebrate with their boyfriends, and my recently married S will be with his in-laws. Thanksgiving is the premier holiday of the year in our family, so we will be missing those four, but life is as it is. So far we have 4 pies, but I’m sure that number will increase before the big day. I’ll travel with soup, brussel sprouts, and at least one pie, with my other sisters dealing with the rest of the meal. I love Thanksgiving!
We just moved into a downsized town home and have always hosted Thanksgiving for the family for the past 30 years. Well, except for two years, the year I had breast cancer and came home from the hospital Thanksgiving week from surgery, and the year my husband blew out our oven; did you know you should not self clean the oven with your outdoor gas grill grates inside? :))
We will be 26 this year; my daughter and husband will be in from London, but my son and his wife go to her family this year. As we do not have room for 26 plus an additional 5 that will come for dessert, I have rented our beautiful clubhouse for the day. I am actually looking forward to it, as we will have tons of room, plus I don’t have to clean! Well, I will have to clean some when we are done, but I won’t have to mop and clean the oven after all the food drips out of the dishes! While many in the group like marshmallows on the sweet potatoes, I am so tired of scraping it out of my oven.
I am trying to figure how much disposable plates, pans, etc… I will use, and what I want to drag across the street and back home after. I have always used the heavy china like plates from Costco, but real silverware and glasses. I am thinking I will still use my stainless silverware and good wine glasses as my husband hates plastic wine glasses. For water glasses, I think I will go with the cut, crystal look plastic cups. I have always decorated with my home colors, but now I can do any color. I am hoping for no rain the day of as we will be walking back and forth between our home and the club house.
Our family tradition (started about 12 years ago) is to go to our vacation place. Since our folks (mine and H’s have passed away) we are the ones who host Thanksgiving. We’ll have 11 people this year (both my daughters and their spouse/boyfriend plus son-in-law’s father and his girlfriend and three others–all friends of my daughters. These three have family in California and have been coming to Thanksgiving at our house for many years. Highlight of Thanksgiving Day is the Cold Turkey Plunge where people go down to the beach (we’re on an island) and jump into the cold water. (It’s a fundraiser for the local library.) I don’t go in the water–I’m usually the official towel holder. It’s a fun event where people wear crazy costumes and there’s a live turkey walking through the crowd. We haven’t come up with a menu yet except H has ordered a heritage breed, organic turkey. We also have 1 vegan and 3 vegetarians and we rely on them to come up with a main dish that they can eat. My H does the turkey and uses an outside gas grill.
@Bromfield2 we had a live turkey walk through our backyard last month, before joining a friend and flying off. I’m in a residential neighborhood at the edge of the city, so it was completely unexpected, though there are all sorts of creatures in the nearby river park.
But it was beautiful (maybe more so for being wild.) I had a moment thinking vegetarian might be the way to go.
Ever since we got our gas Weber, I always make my turkey on the gas grill using the Reluctant Gourmet’s grilling method with that three-way flip, and the bird comes out juicy and tasty.
I feel fortunate that the first woman I met in FL still invites me to Tday meal. Since my son has started dating, after college, he feels free to join the g/f’s family. When he did come home one year, we ate at g/f’s house at noon, then had a large family meal at 6:00, then he went out with friends. By now, he just assumes I’ll be busy, so he pleases the g/f.
This will be a Thanksgiving to remember, as I will be on a low iodine diet to prepare for radioactive iodine after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I’m basically starving my thyroid of iodine in hopes of getting enough uptake to kill off remaining cells. I can only eat 5 oz of organic meat each day and unlimited fruits and vegetables. I cannot eat any dairy or commercial bread products, so will have to make my own bread.
This maybe off topic but I will go ahead and mention this. Holidays are not just time with family and friends but a time of helping out those in need. We each have our own way of doing that. I read an article about a boy that is terminally ill and may not make it to Christmas. All he wants is for people to send him Christmas cards. (if possible homemade) I have posted an article with the address if anyone is interested in doing this. Again, did not mean to derail the thread. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jacob-thompson-cancer-christmas-cards_us_59fcc4e5e4b0c9652fff4c68
I’ve volunteered part of the last two Tdays, at hospice. I’m already involved. But it’s worth thinking how we share, how we put ourselves out there, what effort.
@abasket, our pie selection is not exciting, but includes some variation of apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, Mexican cinnamon chocolate, cherry, and possibly another fruit variety. Only once have we had multiples of the same pie and I think that was the year we had about 30 people for Thanksgiving.
:))