Well... it is that time of year that I get relatives from 500 miles away, they have 2.5 year old twins... my kids and grandkids... including my brand new granddaughter is coming... so with all the cleaning and cooking.... I'm going to enjoy the time with loved ones...

it means me sleeping on the couch... doing alot of the cooking... but the price I pay with family...

your plans???

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Answers

Well, our house is still not finished, no bathroom or indoor hot water. We've been foolish enough to invite old friends to come for the weekend, also have in laws coming for thanksgiving dinner, and have invited a couple of other relatives and local friends too. We're now talking 15-19 mouths to feed! We don't actually have enough plates or chairs to seat everyone. The turkey is still running around outside, gobbling up a storm, and we'll talk to him VERY soon. Think we'll fire up the wood stove in the summer kitchen to make the cooking less cramped. We also just had a litter of great pyrenees puppies, which we set in the middle of the kitchen because the wood cookstove stays lit almost 24/7. It should be complete chaos, but I'm sure it will all come together somehow, because it always does!

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

david, can we come??? Sounds like a wonderful time to me. We are alone until Sunday when my daughter and family come for the day. I had thought about inviting a couple of people but they had plans. I actually am looking forward to a quiet day........but would love to see some of you deal with the big crowds in your various surroundings.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Yarrow, you're right! Be thankful for family.

David, your situation makes me glad we're only having a couple of friends over for the feast and our bird is in the freezer. Ohhh, I hope it's in the refrigerator! Your gobbler will probably be tastier than ours and fresher but I don't have any turkeys running around and I'm afraid that everyone would notice if I tried to pass off a chicken as their dinner.

If you invite Diane out, you have to invite all of us out. Maybe we can finish the bathroom and get the water hooked up. Make it a rule that we don't eat until the works done.

I love Thanksgiving, we get to eat leftovers for weeks which is O.K. with me.

Drooling Wildman

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

I agree with you, Wildman...I love the leftovers!! Turkey sandwiches , turkey soup, turkey fritters...yummm!

Even though we have two homegrown turkeys in our freezer, we bought (yeah that's right...bought!) a store turkey. I think I mentioned on a previous post that my DIL insists on having Thanksgiving at her place so my hubby and I offered to buy the turkey. I refuse to give her one of my homegrown birds because they'll just waste it!! They never eat leftovers! So I'm taking over a stuffed bird that I'm hoping (for my son's sake!) that she will cook properly. Oh well, at least I wont have to clean up my ktchen! But this is the first year in, well...forever that I haven't hosted Thanksgiving. I think I'm gonna miss the baking, hustling around, etc. Yarrow and David...your plans sound wonderful!!

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

We love the leftovers too - turkey curry and turkey fajitas most of all. Then there's "bubble and squeak" - pan fried brussels sprout/ roast potato, the kids favorite for breakfast. I'm not sure we'll have too much left over this year, but we'll at least get the turkey soup with fresh granary rolls.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

My parents became snowbirds after they retired, so they're already on their way down to Florida for the winter. Usually Thanksgiving is just the two of us, but this year we will be spending it with Keith's family. His dad and both his sisters and families all live in a small town about an hour north of us. His mom lives in Grand Rapids but she'll be making the trip down for the holiday. His sister Cathy has 3 children and his sister Laura just had her 4th, so there will be plenty of noise and activity. I still need a few more practice hours for school so I'll be giving massages to his mom and sisters and possibly even his dad. Talk about getting to know your in-laws up close and personal!

Tonight I'm going to the grocery store to get enough food to last the two of us at least a couple of weeks. The area where we live has become so built-up and commercialized that traffic is going to be pretty much impossible for the next month or so. I really hate the Christmas buying frenzy. I must have been a bear in a previous life because this time of year I just want to go and hibernate! :)

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

Me and my husband will be cooking the dinner for my mom and brothers. My mom has Parkinson's and one of my brothers is mentally disabled and the other one's wife is domestically challenged. She'll supply the cheese and crackers. Anyhow I like to cook the dinner for them, only right now my throat is sore and my ears hurt, and of course the doctor's aren't in until Friday. So maybe tomorrow morning I will be dictating cooking orders to Tom and my son, Kyle. I sure would love to see David's puppies, is there anything so sweet and I don't think I've ever seen a Great Pyr puppy. Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

I'm on my own, though I'm never really alone, since I have all my critters around. I don't really mind, I've gotten used to it, and I always make myself a small traditional dinner -- GOTTA have that!

I'll probably clean out the garage or finish getting up the leaves or something!

Yarrow, you may have missed this thread where I recount my past Txgvg experiences: link

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

As all of you know we have many things to be thankful for everyday but for some reason, we seem to place more importance on those things on this day. We seem to get effusively sentimental and family orientated on holidays. Well, we're no different and invited my wifes older brother and sister-in-law over. They are both in their 80's and are having a lot of medical problems. Surprise, surprise. The invite was about two weeks ago and both of them were fairly excited.

Well, we went over Sunday and SIL was mad at the wifes brother because they had had a fight. She didn't remember what the fight was about but she remembered that she was still mad about it! Then she had had a fight that day with her daughter. When she called her daughter, the daughter was telling her who all was coming over to her house for Thanksgiving. She got mad because daughter hadn't invited her, even though she lives out of town. Daughter explained to her that eveytime she invites her over, she always says that she can't get out of the house or doesn't feel well. So now she's mad at husband and daughter. Then she remembered that the 22nd of this month is the day her son was killed in a gas explosion. And she was catching a cold. And one condition for them coming over was that we were going to have to watch the Macy's parade. O.K. no problem. Things went down hill from there. But, hey it's Thanksgiving. It's only going to be a few hours out of the day, right?

They called this morning and neither one of them can speak because she decided to share the cold with her husband.

I'm sorry to take up so much of your time, but I needed to explain what I'm most thankful for. They're NOT coming!

Flame me if you must! I can take it.

They live about 40 miles from us and either this afternoon or tomorrow , we'll take them a plate. Yes, it'll have food on it but we may leave it at the end of the driveway. The driveway is a couple of miles long so I don't think we'll catch anything.

More leftovers.

Wildman (happy)

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001