I am hosting my brother’s family so there will be a total of 7 of us. Dd requested we have apple pie for dessert. I’ll be making my own pumpkin pie for after the holiday! 
. We usually get a fresh turkey from our local farm, but we did not coordinate early enough so I bought a frozen one at Trader Joe’s. I need to figure out when to defrost it. For sides we’ll do stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad and possibly green beans…still deciding if that is the green I want to do. I am an anxious host, even with family, but I’m looking forward to not worrying about Christmas. Also this year it’s been requested I do not respond to anything political as last year was a mess.
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I’ve really enjoyed reading these posts and seeing how everyone celebrates. Years ago, when my kids were 6, 12, and 14, we had the huge feast and grew everything we cooked, including raising and butchering the turkey. It was great, and a lot of work! Memories I can’t top, so I don’t try.
My S and DIL have hosted since 2014. They live nearby. It’s about 15 adults and 7 kids, including her divorced parents, both sets of grandparents, and siblings. It’s informal and a great time where we all pitch in with cooking and clean-up.
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Well…good news for the Thumpers. I kept getting emails from the restaurant we went to last year, but when I tried to book online, there were no reservations available…so I called them. They had an open reservation at 11:15 on Thanksgiving. Appetizers are first so we will be actually eating our meal about noon. So…a Thanksgiving lunch.
I’m glad I called!
We will save our little ten pound frozen Turkey for another time.
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Happy to be able to help
Those are the ‘Practice Pies.’ My mother only made pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas (my grandmother made them all the time) so in early Nov my mother would start practicing and by Thanksgiving she had it down again. We were forced to eat those pies pre-thanksgiving but I was happy to take one for the team.
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We are trying that for the first time this year!
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A quick suggestion for those hosting smallish, minimal Thanksgiving meals:
Right now I am eating one of four Trader Joe’s Teeny Tiny apple pies that come in a box. I put one on a teeny tiny piece of parchment paper and heat it up in my teeny tiny air fryer. Yummy as is but even better, I am sure, with whipped cream and/or ice cream.
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We had Trader Joes frozen apple blossoms last week - thought the crust and apples were great - highly recommend.
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I was lazy and bought 2 pouches of turkey gravy from Costco as well as a $.99/lb butterball turkey. Put the turkey in freezer and will use later with one packet of gravy. Other packet is in fridge (which has more space).
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Well, now there will be seven of us. We’ll be having a fresh turkey, wild turkey, and venison ham, and our son will also be bringing the backstrap (long, lean tender cut that runs along the deer’s spine) for a separate gourmet meal while they are here next week. DIL and my mom will bake three pies (pumpkin, apple, blueberry) to cover everyone’s tastes (I don’t do anything pumpkin).
Not T-day related, but related to this same buck, our son told us that he harvested the heart and sautéed it in butter and garlic to enjoy for dinner after the hunt. Both he and my brother, his fellow hunter, proclaimed it outstanding, and my brother vowed to never leave another heart in the woods (he usually leaves the entrails for scavengers).
This was our son’s first buck and is an eight-point 200-pound trophy specimen that he is having mounted. We are paying for the taxidermy as his Christmas present.
(I apologize to those of you who may be offended by hunting, but all parts of this animal are being used and honored.)
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Back when I lived where there were hunters, we had venison stew every year. It was delicious!
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I tend to the vegetarian (though not strictly), but I love that the whole deer was used, and my farming friends view deer as “rats with hooves” so it seems like a good story to me. Also, good for DS for not eating the heart raw, which I think has disease risk.
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Thanksgiving is going to be weird for us this year. My boys are still in college - one is 8.5 hours north (MA) and the other 9.5 hours south (SC). The one who is in MA could get home, but it’s not easy and he’s in the middle of a research project that he really doesn’t want to walk away from. The one who is in SC can’t easily get here - plane tickets are crazy expensive, he couldn’t leave until Wednesday morning and he “needs” to be back by Friday night (so he can be with friends for the rivalry football game on Saturday). So it didn’t make sense to pay those prices to fly him home. SC kid is going home with his roommate for Thanksgiving, MA kid is eating with three fraternity brothers at the house (I’ve ordered a whole Thanksgiving dinner for them from Whole Foods - he just needs to pick up the day before and heat it up). The brothers are international students who want the Thanksgiving experience but don’t have anywhere to go. Hopefully, both my kids will have fun.
That, however, means this is my first Thanksgiving without them. Added to that, my sister and her family, who usually join us, are travelling to her in-laws this year because of some complicated things. So it’s me, my husband, me mom, and my kooky sister in law. My mom still does the cooking, so all I have to bring is a side, so it’s not the work that’s causing me any negative stuff, it’s the missing people. It’s just not going to feel the same without all my people here. I could deal with that, but I really struggle with my husband’s nutty sister. Like, she legit drives me bonkers and it’s hard to be polite. He says “just ignore her, don’t respond” but to me, that’s rude. He will literally just not answer her when she talks to him, pretending she’s talking to someone else. I can’t do that. And then I end up being so frustrated by her, just, weirdness, that I lose my patience. It’s better when there are more people, because I can busy myself talking to someone else, but with just four of us, I don’t know how well that will work. I can’t mentally picture how the dinner will go. I don’t WANT to engage her in conversation, my mom can barely hear, my husband will ignore his sister and not speak loud enough or clearly enough for my mom to participate and I will want to just run away to a quiet corner.
Sigh. I’m really hoping that I’m catastrophizing and it’s better than I expect.
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The family issues with the SIL sound difficult. I think I would have a hard time getting in the mood for that event as well!
I think that Thanksgiving is often difficult for college students to get home unless they are more state local - often just doesn’t make sense when for many of them, they will have the long holiday break in a week or two after Thanksgiving.
Maybe you guys can FaceTime on Thanksgiving or send pics of your meals to each other!
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This is the first time in years that our D1 and family will not be coming to our lake house for Thanksgiving. The shutdown forced SIL’s company to cut work to every other day, so he had to use his PTO. Yuck. But that enables us to go to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with D2 and family and D3. My husband has a stamp show to go to the weekend following the Thanksgiving weekend in Florida. So, we just moved our trip up a week. This year we are spending Christmas at D1’s house, so we will see them a few weeks later. All I have to do now is make the apple pies.
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Friendsgiving planned. I will bring stuffing (from a box but looks good) and a vegetable dish, either brussels sprouts with garlic and soy sauce or stringbean casserole with homemade mushroom soup plus of course crispy onions. Just three of us at the table at my friend/former neighbor’s condo.
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Not a problem in my family!
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We got a lunchtime reservation! Yay!
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I love lunch out! Glad things worked out
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My inlaws turned down an invitation to S2’s for Thanksgiving; we would have done the driving, 1 hr round trip. They said no, planned instead to see my BIL and his stepkids, 4 hr round trip away.
Yesterday DH is told his parents decided against that, and have asked the BIL and his wife to drive down to them. Instead of coming with us, they are staying home with them. Today’s mantra is “I don’t have to like it but it’s not mine to change”
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