D1 is hosting Thanksgiving at her Brooklyn apartment. Last year her dad cooked, but this year he won’t be there (yay 
). D1 said she will do the cooking. I asked her if she would like me to order from Fresh Direct, she said no. The great thing about NYC is we could always order Chinese take out if all else fails.
We probably won’t have a kitchen at that point, so we will bring in food. I’m not a big turkey fan so we will probably get a roast chicken and H will get some turkey at the deli. Oldest boy will go his gf, DD will be meeting her new boyfriend’s parents for the first time at the home of one of his relatives. The parents live in Europe so I said it was ok. I hope to meet them at some point over the weekend, perhaps, @oldfort , at the apartment D and the bf are moving to in Brooklyn next month. S17 will be with us. Middle son should be home from college but he hasn’t give us his plans yet. S14 will probably go to a friend’s grandmother’s house. MIL doesn’t like to travel anymore and with his knee recently replaced, H can’t go get her. I can’t move her and she doesn’t want the boys to.
Going to friends. Neither of our kids will be here 
I’m making a butternut squash soup for the first course, and an apple cranberry pie. DH will get a bottle of either port or brandy. We have celebrated holidays with these friends for over 25 years.
our 2 college kids will be home; and i randomly invited my half-uncle from 1000 miles away to come visit – And he is! He’s a hoot. retired at age 36 and has done just what he wants to do for the last 20 years.
we’ll have a total of 14 people at my house. I’m thinking of getting out the very un-used china; we’ll play cribbage and listen to my brother tell stories. Lots of yummy food; i dont mind cooking but i really dont like all the cleaning required beforehand.
Just found out S1 won’t be here for Thsnksgiving. Will be first one spent apart. I’m a little sad, but he is struggling with our relationship these days, so I’m putting no pressure on him. I expect this is the “beginning of the end” of spending all holidays together.
@1214mom, hugs. We’ll be going to San Diego where SIL has been hosting for years. The only complaint we have is there aren’t any leftovers for us!
Really not sure yet. Years past we always left for a fall vacation on Thanksgiving Day (flights are cheap on the holidayitself !) D will be home for the weekend but always has dinner at her Dads. My S will eat at his future MILs most likely as it is a 9 hour drive home. I refuse to host, the house is too small and I just don’t see the return on investment lol.
Just putting it out there for anyone who may be looking to celebrate a less traditional TG or just doesn’t have the time or energy to prepare everything. Boston Market makes a nice turkey - no kidding. Can order online and pick up TG day at at your choice of predetermined time. Sides we like include mashed pot, stuffing and gravy. Reasonably priced and packaged well with instructions. Don’t laugh - it’s ok and a major time-saver !
I love hearing everyone’s plans, especially those of us with grown up kids who are now spread out over the country and over the globe. And I love the tip about Boston Market! Might end up pulling something together at the last minute.
Son wanted to come again this year but he has to work- diagonally across the country from us. He plans a vacation visit earlier in the month. His grandma will be with us, an added bonus. In a way it will be better because instead of one huge feast for food I (and his grandma) will be able to cook more favorites over several days- Indian and not.
This year so far looks like us, H’s mom and a solo neighbor- bunch of old folks. Perhaps an OOS couple related to H will come. Many vegetarians. I’m not fond of turkey so don’t include it. I do plan fowl- chicken or such. Also include my and H’s favorites- like a double menu that includes Indian and American favorites (crossover here- sweet potatoes for him, Indian veggie for me…).
We tend to include “strays”- anyone and everyone who wants to invited. No turkey, though. Except for one year when we had a full table that included on call physicians with one woman whose kitchen was being remodeled and dinner would have been the (good) hospital fare. That family was European American and I told them no turkey. Son did a turkey trot that morning and won a fresh turkey! Figured out how to cook it (no known weight, btw- unlabeled from the local grocery store sponsor) plus the several Cornish game hens already prepped. Sent a lot of turkey home with some guests!
Wisconsin always holds classes the day before Thanksgiving- including exams. Something to warn OOS parents about who think their kid can skip classes and come home longer. There is a long semester break just a month away- having a whole week off seems a bit much to me, not what I’m used to. It is gun deer season that week and even most districts “up north” have school that week.
For us, and many others, it is the last major holiday of the year. Thank goodness for secular holidays.
I’ve had Thanksgiving here for the last decade plus…but my brother moved back from years in China and he and his wife want to do it this year. So while I do enjoy having everyone here, I’ll be off to my brother and his family’s apartment in NYC. They already said they are catering everything from Zabars so while I do like my home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, I’m sure it will be just fine. Both of my kids live in NYC so they are coming. We want to drive (as we are bringing wine, a side dish, a dessert) but we’ll see. Mass transit probably makes more sense (we are in the suburbs). No complaints at all as we will be together!
Zabar’s sounds yummy, happy1!
@wis75 – that’s what I love about Thanksgiving – it’s secular and there’s no gift giving. Everything just kind of shuts down for the day and it’s all about good food and family. I got the best stuffing recipe here on CC years ago. Once you get your dishes down, you never need to stray from the familiar.
Mention of other cultures not necessarily having turkey reminded me of a story from work. I am the admin assistant at a church, which has a large number of immigrant families. One year, the pastor called a family fairly recently arrived from Africa. She told one of the kids, who was translating for his parents, that she would be stopped by later with all the fixings for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, even the turkey. There was silence on the other end of the line, and finally “Mike” spoke up: “Who’s going to kill the turkey for us?” He had only ever known them to be wild birds and had no idea that people could go to the store and buy them ready to cook. I believe Pastor cooked the turkey for them herself.
D3’s college stupidly changed its schedule so that Thanksgiving is basically finals week so she is not coming home. We will fly out there the week before and have a mini-TD with her. I hope we’re not infringing on her time too much and I hope her oven works!
H has to work TD evening so we will be going to a friend’s house and just bringing a dish. It’s nice to have a low key Thanksgiving.
I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner, but ironically never get to do it anymore. I compensate by making several vegetable dishes in advance and bringing them down to my niece’s house in CT to help her out, since she is usually hosting around 20+ people. (The entire family plus a few SOs and friends.)
@greenwitch – that’s awful about the schedule change! Used to drive me crazy that Emory couldn’t tell DD up front if they’d have classes or not the day before Thanksgiving. I’d book her flight to come home Wednesday night then guess what – the Tuesday before they’d say classes were cancelled.
All will be here, yay!!! Two sons will be missing for Christmas.
We do a traditional T-giving dinner. Turkey.
When we travel cross country for Thanksgiving (this will be the second, maybe 3rd time) we bring the holiday gifts with us. So for us it is gift giving. They can decide to wait til the holiday, or not. Matters not to us.
I can tell you what I won’t be doing on Thanksgiving - I won’t be shopping, that’s for sure!
More and more stores here are planning to be closed for Thanksgiving. Thank— heavens!!