Did everyone survive?

[MaBelle]

I'm a piece of dead turkey meat.  But we had a blast.

[Loowit]

It was an okay time today.  DD helped a lot in the kitchen and that was a relief for me since I have not been feeling well lately.

I really missed seeing my family today.  They were all with their in-laws this year, and my parents chose to stay home.  But DH had a great time visiting his parents and sister, which he rarely gets to see anymore, so that was nice.

My IL's seemed to have a great time and were appreciative of the dinner.  I messed up a few thing in the kitchen.  The turkey was still partially frozen, but cooked very quickly and was done an hour sooner than planned.  I put bacon wrapped dates on a cookie sheet without side and almost started a grease fire in our oven.

I am trying to cherish these holidays right now while my kids are still at home, because I know that they will grow up and be out of the house in a few years and may not make it home for them.

I am looking forward to tomorrow when we put up our Christmas village and can start playing Christmas music.  We are going to have a family weekend at home, decorating and playing games.

[El...]

We had a great time. I woke up today (Friday) fighting a cold, though. I just cooked for all those people... I hope I didn't share any germs.

[Lawyer&Mom]

I have a horrible hacking cough, and the party was total sensory overload, but my pumpkin pie turned out great so all is well in the world. 

[Shoeless]

It was fine. It's just us 3 for Thanksgiving and we did our own thing.  Kiddo tried some new-to-him foods and helped cook. Husband has been working on a project in the garage.  I cleaned out a bunch of stuff from kiddo's room and the hall closet. 

I got some partial details from my sister regarding How Weird Was Dad Today? (Answer: Very!)  Apparently he gave a sermon at the dinner table and made everyone uncomfortable because he was melodramatic and overbearing about it, insisting we're all in grave peril from...? We don't know what. 🤷‍♂️ 

[HomeAgain]

Survived!

Dh came home from work yesterday to a clean house, table set, food all on schedule...it was the most orderly Thanksgiving we'd had in a long time. 😄 I'm glad I wrote it all out in the Tackling Thursday thread because it was easy to refer back to after I put my notebook away.
Two dishes didn't make it: the mac & cheese and the roasted squash.  The mac & cheese was a last minute addition and I used the wrong cheese for it, so the sauce broke.  The roasted squash didn't want to roast and got mealy.  There was definitely enough on the table without them so I don't feel all that bad.

[maize]

We had a really nice day. Lots of snow here, so dh and some of the kids spent time in the morning clearing the cars and driveway. Dh's oldest sister and her husband were hosting Thanksgiving, the drive was a bit dicey because of the weather but we just took our time. Someone said there were 44 people there; we are at the point where nieces and nephews are bringing their own spouses and kids so there were a couple of adorable babies. There were five tables set up for dinner! BiL likes to host and does most of the cooking so all we had to bring was rolls, which my 16 year old made.

It felt like a redemption of sorts, last Thanksgiving was really hard as dh was in a mental health crisis at the time; he is so much better this year and my older kids commented on how nice it was to have a low stress holiday.

[Guest]

I survived the chaos that is big family Thanksgiving! We had seating at four tables, spread through the sunroom, dining room, kitchen and family room. There were no food disasters and no big personality run-ins. 

I have a list for my boys, though, mostly instructing them to put away all the spare tables, chairs, dishes and utensils! 

[Lawana]

I am in camp dead turkey meat 😆 after spending the past 3 days on my feet. 

One very funny food mishap: making gravy from turkey stock from previously cooked turkey, retrieved the jar of pan drippings from refrigerator. Except instead of the pan drippings I dumped in the cup of leftover pecan pie filling: the corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter part without pecans.  😮 The grossest tasting combo ever. Fortunately I had enough stock and the actual pan drippings to start over. 

[Xahm]

We have delayed the big Thanksgiving meal that is supposed to be at dh's grandmother's house. His grandfather is in the hospital. He has Parkinson's and can no longer swallow, which means big decisions have to be made, thankfully not by me. The hope is that he will be home (though on hospice care) by Sunday and we can have a big Thanksgiving dinner there around him. I think his grandmother will be hoping for a lively distraction then, or at least I hope so. My kids are young enough that they will either be almost oblivious to impending death or else sobbing puddles at the thought of someone dying. They don't have much in between.

[hjffkj]

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Since we hosted my family last Sunday, yesterday all we had to do was show up to dh's aunt's house. Her and her siblings handle all the food for Thanksgiving and just want us to be there.

It was great. Everyone gets along. We played 2 party games and ate a bunch of yummy food. The only sad thing is we have no leftovers. 

[alisoncooks]

Meh. Yesterday was just an obligatory appearance. Today is my real Thanksgiving. Turkey in 2.5 hours -- woo-hoo!

[DoraBora]

We had a great time.  Everyone contributed food and laughter.  We just had my mom, my sister and her family, and a dear friend who just had her final chemo treatment on Tuesday -- definitely a reason to celebrate!  Our meal was at lunchtime so we'd have time to visit and play Fishbowl before the Cowboy game kicked off (ahem).

I was missing my dad last night in the quiet after everyone went home or to bed, but I'm grateful for the time we had with him.

Feeling very thankful and pleasantly tired today.

[Sneezyone]

Totally a quiet day for us but it was paced well and the food was great! DH is out early this morning to complete some household projects. DH and I gamed out Christmas before the kids/dog woke up. I shopped in my jammies w/Amazon prime. So far, so good!

[sassenach]

It wasn’t our smoothest Thanksgiving.
 

Our problematic toilet clogged, leaving is with one working toilet. 
 

Our spare table was spider infested. 
 

My bought fresh turkey ended up half frozen because we really need a new fridge. That threw off all the timing. 

But after all that drama, it was actually a pretty fun evening!

[mumto2]

Hope you feel better soon!  

So.....The four of us had a great time!  Remember my kids didn’t grow up with Thanksgiving so no expectations......... Basically went with the flow and hung out together.  Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Looked over the ads.  Warm enough for my kids to decide they wanted to spend an hour on the beach.  They were the only ones in the water but had a blast.......Dh and I waded.😂 Came home and the kids took quick showers and ate a snack of leftovers from the day before and headed out to people watch at the Black Friday sales.  They needed ugly Christmas sweaters for a party so bought some at Kohl’s and got Kohl’s cash.  I now have some new kitchen gadgets basically free after rebate.  Came home and I made the smoked turkey breast and as a whole we had the traditional meal.  I bought pies and stuck them in the freezer a month ago but they wanted cupcakes with turkeys from Publix so that’s what we had.   We sat down to eat at 9 pm!  Watched Charlie Brown after.

Edited November 29, 2019 by mumto2

[Momto6inIN]

It was quiet here. We were supposed to go to my parents' house 4.5 hrs away on Wed night and come home today (Fri), but DD11 puked and spiked a fever and the baby had a bad cough and didn't sleep so we ended up staying home at the last minute. I had a few panicky minutes wondering how to make the day still seem special, but we had hosted DH's family (59 people!) this past Sunday so I had some leftover turkey and I pulled that out to make some turkey tortellini soup and I pulled out the "good plates" and the wine glasses and a candle to make it "fancy". Then we put up the Christmas tree after supper.

It's been nice having all of us home and not having anything pressing to do. But I do miss seeing our families, and I know our kids do too, so the traveling is worth it. But I could get used to this staying home on holidays thing every once in a while!

[Liz CA]

My favorite way to spend Thanksgiving. Best friend came over as her dh was thousands of miles away with his mother. We laughed, we talked, we cooked a little, we ate a lot. Everything was simple and therefore left less room for mishaps. Took a walk to digest food or at least move a little. Came home to fill up on pie. Friend left around 7pm - she had a 2.5 hour drive - and we lounged around with a fire burning, snoozing, reading and occasionally watching something. Weather was beautiful, low sixties but no rain and not as windy as it had been earlier this week.

[Liz CA]

2 hours ago, Margaret in CO said:

We had a great time, and it didn't snow, so dd didn't have to plow. Heard from Navy girl out in the Pacific, and other dd took 4th in her turkey race. She didn't realize that it was actually a race, so she could have run much faster! Heard from one sil--he had to work at the squadron. We got dd's headlights working so she can take her truck to Denver today for the kids flying out at midnight. IF it doesn't snow--it's looking iffy, and already snowing on the pass. We got the Christmas village up. But, whoops--we forgot to take a photo!

 

You can remedy that!

[Vanchy]

We are still recovering from yesterday. I promised myself that I will not cook today, but that was yesterday.... I just finished Taco Soup and instead of chicken I used turkey. My husband told me that he can't trust me when I say that I won't cook anything. Unfortunately, that is true. 😂

[math teacher]

Leftovers are in the fridge, but no one wants them today. We went to Tacos4Life for lunch, and I'm making eggs, bacon, and toast for dinner. Ds will leave sometime in the morning hours. His sleep is messed up so he'll wake up and drive 3.5 hours back to college. Dh works tomorrow and i will go in and write lesson plans and whatever else i find to do. Got some of the Christmas decor up. Ds told me I didn't need to fill his stocking. Sniff sniff

[KungFuPanda]

We survived easily because it was just the four of us.  We tend to travel every other Thanksgiving and this one was an at-home year.  I've spent today in my pajamas, making turkey stock, goofing off online, and pushing leftovers.  DS has declared that he's already tired of turkey.  Meanwhile I've planned three other meals around this bird. 🤣

I was toying with the idea of putting up the tree since college girl is home this weekend, but it just feels TOO soon for me.  We leave it up until epiphany and an entire month feels excessive.

[school17777]

As far as I am aware of, there wasn’t drama a Tday this year (other than mil trying to get me to let 19 yo dd have a apple cider vodka drink - which was pretty light hearted even though it frustrated me).  We have had some pretty major drama in past holidays, so thankful it was a calm year.

[HomeAgain]

Leftovers are the absolute best part of Thanksgiving. 😋  Dh created a sandwich last year that is now an after-T day staple in our house: smoked turkey, sharp cheddar, homemade cranberry sauce, and maple aioli on sourdough bread grilled until the cheese is just melty.  It is absolutely divine. 

[KungFuPanda]

10 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

Leftovers are the absolute best part of Thanksgiving. 😋  Dh created a sandwich last year that is now an after-T day staple in our house: smoked turkey, sharp cheddar, homemade cranberry sauce, and maple aioli on sourdough bread grilled until the cheese is just melty.  It is absolutely divine. 

Whoa!  I might try this with smoked cheddar.  I plan to make a loaf of sourdough tomorrow and this would be perfect.  I might be to lazy to hunt down maple aioli, but I'm not above spiking my mayo with syrup to get that hint of flavor.