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How did Tgiving go? Did you host? How many?


lauraw4321
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We hosted at our house this year.  A small group for our family with only 10.  My in-laws, and 6 of our kids.  No grandbabies as 4 are out of the country this year.  My oldest dd was supposed to come but texted at the last minute that she couldn't make it.  There has been some drama going in with her baby's father so I'm assuming that's the reason.

We did ham and I had a good laugh at the final instructions on the packaging "Avoid overcooking to prevent burning" 🤣🤣

Sides were sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, asparagus and raisin sauce ( which I almost forgot to make!).  A big bowl of fruit, blueberry cake, apple pie, coconut cream pie and pumpkin pie were on the dessert table.

The day went well.  I had moments of sadness missing those who weren't there.  We found out that our oldest and his wife (who are out of the states for a year) are expecting baby #5 in July.  Which is great news but means they will be gone longer than they planned because baby will be born there.  So unless we spend thousands we don't have to travel next summer we won't meet the new baby for a while 😟.  

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I hosted 11.   It wasn't horrible, but I am on my 3rd load of dishes and have another waiting.   And no one who visited helped with anything, which was annoying.   Thankfully my kids are pretty good with helping.   I relied on them for helping with table setting and cleaning the table.   One helped do a load of dishes and such, but it is a lot.

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We had 6 this year. Dh and I, plus all the kids flew/drove home. Dh met dd's boyfriend for the first time as he also drove down . All the kids (and boyfriend) were very involved in making the meal and cleaning up. We made smaller amounts of some favorite foods so we wouldn't have so many leftovers. I decided a few years back that if someone wanted something specific, they could make/help make it. It's worked out very well. I'm not the only doing the cooking anymore and they've gained good cooking skills. This year oldest dd made the turkey. Because of her career, this is likely her last Thanksgiving home for several years, so now she knows how to prepare her own turkey. I enjoy the comradery of so many in the kitchen right now. There's laughter and goofing off. Each year, I think "This is the last Thanksgiving/Christmas we'll all be together." I've been pleasantly surprised by how much they want to come home!

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It was just my husband our son and me this year. His girlfriend was working all day.

The guys asked for Indian food instead of our traditional/non-traditional vegan spread. I bought appetizers from the Indian grocery store (samosas, onion pakora, potato puri) but made channa masala, curried potatoes, mint chutney and onion chutney from scratch and, of course, made a big batch of basmati in the rice cooker. 

Thanksgiving is always small and pretty casual at our house, but this year was unusually laid back. My son came over, and we watched the parade. As soon as Santa's float rolled by, I packed up a portion of channa, rice and chutney, and my son and I drove over and delivered it to his girlfriend. We hung out with her for her lunch break, then scooted back home. My son and husband played board games while I finished getting dinner prepped. 

Then we ate, hung out a little while longer talking about holiday decor, and my son headed home.

It was a perfectly pleasant, drama-free day, but it did not feel like Thanksgiving even a little bit.

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Just us.  1dd stayed home.   

we bbq'd steak - not sure I want to do that again.  (my tenderloin was good).

Then we had a double feature in our theater - with pie in the middle.   We watched Arrival (I've never seen it - I liked it, dh didn't understand it.), and Casablanca (1ds has never seen it - he laughed).

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We hosted. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s the first holiday since going no contact with my parents. Which increasingly seems to be my siblings not speaking to me as well. So I’m grieving all of that. 
 

We had a great day though. It was dh and I, our 4 daughters, one dd’s boyfriend, and 2 of my dds’ best friends. The only people over the age of 26 were dh and me. 🙂

My 3 oldest daughters each made a dish: marinated veggie salad, sweet potato casserole (with streusel topping), and green bean casserole.

I roasted the turkey the day before and reheated it—turned out great. I made Ree Drummond’s dressing recipe, Squash casserole, turnip greens, Sister Schubert’s rolls, and Alabama white bbq sauce for the turkey. Oh and I had a gift card to Honey Baked Ham, so we had that, too. Lots of leftovers!
 

I busted out the formal china and crystal. I even had the forethought to do a centerpiece—unheard of for me lol. I really had fun with it.  I really enjoyed all the young’uns. This is the first time we’ve spent a significant amount of time with dd’s serious boyfriend. 
 

Oh and pets—so many pets! DD’s boyfriend brought his GINORMOUS long haired German Shepherd. So I think we had 7 dogs and 3 cats. 2 chihuahua mixes, 1 smallish Pomeranian/cattle dog mix, 1 American Eskimo mix, a pit mix, lab/Shepherd mix, and the Ginormous Shepherd. It’s has been pretty chaotic at times—especially cooking. We have some cute pics of all the dogs gathered in a group around me patiently waiting for their turkey treats. 🙂 The cats are holed up in my bedroom. 😉 

I love reading everyone’s menus. I’m doing something non traditional for Christmas dinner. Not sure yet.

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10 hours ago, popmom said:

I love reading everyone’s menus. I’m doing something non traditional for Christmas dinner. Not sure yet.

Dh's work schedule dropped so our Christmas menu got finalized. He's working the overnight shift on Christmas eve and day, so sleep is what he'll be doing after presents are opened.  To the kids' delight, it's going to be a "Gilmore Day": trays of appetizers, supermarket pizza, and Chinese food with afternoon movies like Santa Claus Vs. The Martians. 

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We hosted our immediate family - 10/11 kids, daughter’s hubby, and their four kids, so 17. Daughter (#3) and her hubby are both in healthcare and worked. 
 

This year was the first year that I didn’t do anything. Costco pies and DH assigned everyone one job. DS7 made corn, DD8 had the relish tray, etc.  It was cute. He did so great. The Turkey was perfect. I took a new muscle relaxer and ended up with a 3.5 hour “nap” from it. SMH. Ended the night with Telestrations and Wits n Wagers. Good fun to be had by all. 
 

Today is the big one for DH’s side - his parents, siblings, etc. 30 people today. 
 

We skipped my side. It’s my mom’s brothers and sisters (11 in all) and first cousins (30) and spouses and kids… it’s fun enough but in a community center with an elevator in unfamiliar with but old. I’m never jumping in it with a 400+ pound chair. 😉 

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11 hours ago, popmom said:

We hosted. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s the first holiday since going no contact with my parents. Which increasingly seems to be my siblings not speaking to me as well. So I’m grieving all of that. 
 

We had a great day though. It was dh and I, our 4 daughters, one dd’s boyfriend, and 2 of my dds’ best friends. The only people over the age of 26 were dh and me. 🙂

My 3 oldest daughters each made a dish: marinated veggie salad, sweet potato casserole (with streusel topping), and green bean casserole.

I roasted the turkey the day before and reheated it—turned out great. I made Ree Drummond’s dressing recipe, Squash casserole, turnip greens, Sister Schubert’s rolls, and Alabama white bbq sauce for the turkey. Oh and I had a gift card to Honey Baked Ham, so we had that, too. Lots of leftovers!
 

I busted out the formal china and crystal. I even had the forethought to do a centerpiece—unheard of for me lol. I really had fun with it.  I really enjoyed all the young’uns. This is the first time we’ve spent a significant amount of time with dd’s serious boyfriend. 
 

Oh and pets—so many pets! DD’s boyfriend brought his GINORMOUS long haired German Shepherd. So I think we had 7 dogs and 3 cats. 2 chihuahua mixes, 1 smallish Pomeranian/cattle dog mix, 1 American Eskimo mix, a pit mix, lab/Shepherd mix, and the Ginormous Shepherd. It’s has been pretty chaotic at times—especially cooking. We have some cute pics of all the dogs gathered in a group around me patiently waiting for their turkey treats. 🙂 The cats are holed up in my bedroom. 😉 

I love reading everyone’s menus. I’m doing something non traditional for Christmas dinner. Not sure yet.

Love it. I don’t know why I’ve never thought to have white sauce with my turkey but it’s a great idea. 
 

Did you like Ree’s dressing recipe?

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15 minutes ago, BlsdMama said:

We hosted our immediate family - 10/11 kids, daughter’s hubby, and their four kids, so 17. Daughter (#3) and her hubby are both in healthcare and worked. 
 

This year was the first year that I didn’t do anything. Costco pies and DH assigned everyone one job. DS7 made corn, DD8 had the relish tray, etc.  It was cute. He did so great. The Turkey was perfect. I took a new muscle relaxer and ended up with a 3.5 hour “nap” from it. SMH. Ended the night with Telestrations and Wits n Wagers. Good fun to be had by all. 
 

Today is the big one for DH’s side - his parents, siblings, etc. 30 people today. 
 

We skipped my side. It’s my mom’s brothers and sisters (11 in all) and first cousins (30) and spouses and kids… it’s fun enough but in a community center with an elevator in unfamiliar with but old. I’m never jumping in it with a 400+ pound chair. 😉 

Lovely. We love telestrations!

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I worked Wednesday and Friday, so my normal routine of cooking smaller amounts for three days then crashing on Friday was out the window. I ordered some premade dishes and cooked the rest. We had about 15 dishes for 5 people. 🤣 I ran my dishwasher FOUR times. 
 

It was just Dh, Ds, Dd, dsil, and me.  We had a really nice day and I sent Dd and her husband home with tons of food. I’m looking forward to my leftovers today. I’ll probably make stock from the bones, curried Turkey salad, and freeze some meat for future turkey pot pie.

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10 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

Love it. I don’t know why I’ve never thought to have white sauce with my turkey but it’s a great idea. 
 

Did you like Ree’s dressing recipe?

I liked it but didn’t love it. I’d make it again though. Next time I’ll cut back on the French bread and add more cornbread. 

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I hosted at my mom's, but we actually did the day after Thanksgiving. We got in at 9pm from driving from Indiana on Wednesday night. On Thanksgiving my husband fried the Turkeys. I packed to go to my mom's house. I also unloaded all of the food from the RV.  I assembled the box with all the food  and a cooler with cold stuff. At 2 my oldest and I drove the nearly 3 hours to my mom's house. Mom was in bed, but step-dad was up. Saw mom hadn't taken her meds in the morning. I made sure she ate something and took her evening meds. My son took the bed ( wanted him to. It was also his base of operations as he had to work online 4am -12 on black Friday to help with any issues if his company website crashed)

I laid down on the couch. Mom came out at 9:30 pm convinced it was 9:30 am and we were late for her doctor's appointment.  Took he blood sugar and it was fine. Talked to the nurse on the phone. She finally went back to bed at 10pm.

I made sausage rolls for breakfast and made sure mom took her glucose, blood pressure and meds. I then began making the stuffing, green bean casserole, and corn casserole. We just reheated the turkey and gravy from the day before. We normally have a ton more sides, but since I was traveling and my mom only has one oven, we kept it simple.

My husband and other two kids came up. Mom took a nap, then got up and ate lunch, though she nearly fell she felt so lightheaded. She went to bed immediately after lunch. Kids went home. Hubby and I waited till she got up. Took her blood sugar again and then drove the three hours home. Kids were so shocked at how much my mom has gone downhill since the summer. She knew where she was and participated in conversations, but couldn't follow it all. 

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Just hosted today.  Dh's family always did Thanksgiving on Saturday, and we used to have two - when MIL died, I consolidated, but now with kids bringing in s/o's, I decided I kinda liked Saturday Thanksgiving.  SIL prefers Thursday, so we figure we'll trade off and if she hosts it's Thursday and if I host it's Saturday.  

We had 12 people, all vaxxed and boosted, and we did rapid tests to be extra careful.  I did turkey, gravy and two pies, and supplied all the drinks and appetizers, dh made cranberry-orange relish, one dd made an apple pie, db and SIL brought mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole and yet another pie, and my mom brought a bunch of veggies and the stuffing.  And my house (at least the downstairs) got cleaned and decluttered, which is good because I tend to let the clutter build till company comes, and let's say the last two years have not been good for clutter!

It was a bit of a challenge because we have one vegan, one person who can't have gluten, and another who's allergic to nuts, beans, and raw fruits and veggies.  But everyone had a wide variety of things they could eat.  I can't believe the stories I read about where families refuse to accomodate allergies and guests have to bring their own food or starve.  What the hecken.

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