There are only 2 of us, 3 if my turkey hating son drops by. We don’t really do thanksgiving. We used to go to a breakfast buffett and then spend the day at the movies, but now the movies are really crowded. I guess word got out that they wern’t so now they are. Then we would do chinese on the way home.
My ex-sister-in-law was in some sect in which she supposedly didn’t celebrate holidays. What that meant was she expected Christmas gifts for her kids but didn’t have to buy any for anyone else. And apparently she wasn’t celebrating any of the other holidays but she was allowed to come and eat the free food.
I’m hoping to be able to skip it. I called mom last night and she hadn’t heard anything from the cousins or aunt. I assumed she would call them and then call me right back, but still nothing. I told her that if I don’t hear anything by tomorrow, I’m staying home. It’s too much hassle.
Since I live alone, I tend to just get some ham slices and maybe some other things and make a ham sandwich with some fixings and just relax. I have friends who host Thanksgiving at their house every other year, so in those years, I do Thanksgiving with them, but this year is just me.
The ragged people with no friends and no family might not get into any special Thanxgiving Festivities. Maybe sit in front of the tube (or in front of the SDMB) with a bag of animal crackers.
“You know you’re really on your own when . . .
. . . You celebrate your birthday by sticking a candle into a cupcake and having a good cry.
. . . You celebrate Christmas by inviting the janitor in for a beer.”
– MAD Magazine, “You Know You’re Really On You Own When” , Dave Berg
I love turkey, so the few times I’ve chosen to spend the day alone, I still cooked one. The prep time is hardly anything, and I love the leftovers and the carcass for soup. No need for all the sides. Just turkey and whatever else I felt like having with it.
But then, I’ll do a (small) turkey at least once a month in the winter. It’s not just for Thanksgiving and Christmas, folks!! 
I stopped attending family Thanksgiving gatherings after finishing university and moving out on my own. The idea of driving a couple hundred miles in dodgy weather for a so-so meal with people I might not even know (step-siblings step-kids) just never really appealed. Same for Xmas. Now that I live in the UK Thanksgiving is a non-issue people just leave me alone (the way I want) over Xmas.
Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners have shifted around the family a few times, changing as people have died. Six years ago, my sister took it over when my dad was too ill and my mom was too stressed to handle it all.
This year my sister decided she was tired of her kids dining and dashing (to in-laws houses), so she decided to move it all to Saturday. This has not gone over well. I offered to take Mom out to dinner, just do something quiet on Thursday. Instead, she wants to do a small Thanksgiving.
Everyone but my sister and her husband will be there. She declined, huffily, stating if everyone can clear their schedule for Mom, they should have done it for her, yadda yadda. She is ignoring the fact that she usually does dinner at noon, Mom is doing it at 6pm, after other family obligations are done.
Both days should be interesting - there has been a lot of infighting this past year.
I’d be a lot more thankful about Thanksgiving if it wasn’t with my inlaws. There’s nearly always some kind of big drama going on, plus too many of them expect The Classic Dishes Done the Classic Way (green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup, sweet potato casserole, etc.) plus tons of different pies even though few eat any of them.
I’m all-in on a Thanksgiving celebration with nice people over a big meal, though.
I love Thanksgiving, but we don’t do much. Husband and I have no kids, our parents are gone, and brothers and sisters are scattered across the US. So we typically go out for a good meal, and then do a drive around and go exploring.
Last year we went to Snowbird Mt Lodge in NC, and LOVED it. It’s pricey, so it’s our Xmas present and my B-day present too (Nov 24 ) We’re going there again today. Beautiful area, fabulous food, comfortable place to stay, no kids under 12, fairly small group of people staying. And I don’t have to cook or clean or do anything I don’t want to do for 4 lovely days.
Heaven.
I spend it with a friend who likes to cook, so he does, whether it’s turkey or something else. This year turkey, I think. I’ll make mashed potatoes.
And we sit around and watch movies all day, with a break to eat at some point.
Very relaxing.
Me too, but I’m going to spend it with my family. 
Loved the Thanksgiving at a restaurant with my mom, my sister, and our husbands. Sadly, this one is with the inlaws, plus my sister’s husband has a job at Walmart now and thus is working T-day anyway. Plus apparently we’re having a Serious Talk with their father about assisted living/nursing home/something for their mother (and him, to a lesser extent), so I’m even less thrilled about the joyous holiday this year.
Oddly enough, as much as I’ve always liked Thanksgiving, it was living abroad for five years that cemented my love for it, so much so that even after I moved back to the US, I flew out for two Thanksgivings to cook and celebrate there. Our Thanksgiving day parties had equal number American expats, locals, and assorted other foreigners there. It was fun finding all the ingredients, from whole turkey to fresh cranberries to pumpkins (or butternut squash), etc., to make a true “American-style” Thanksgiving dinner. And, of course, wine. Lots and lots and lots of wine.
I always thought Thanksgiving was kind of a BS holiday, really. Once I’d learned how the US treated Native Americans, celebrating Thanksgiving seemed…not so great.
That having been said–I end up doing Thanksgiving because my family does. It’s good to see everyone, but I’d just as soon take advantage of time off to do other things.
My wife an I don’t celebrate occasions or holidays. This just sort of evolved as when we met I worked in Hospital Information System and often did upgrades or covered support for persons with families. She travels a lot for her work. Our immediate families are now all dead and the extended families live a considerable distance away. All these plus neither of us actually liked holidays as kids.
Our oven’s broke, half of us are sick, and most of the extended family is choosing to go with the other side of the family this year. There’s an invitation to go to the house of my mom’s Filipino coworkers, but mom’s one of the ones who is sick, and it would be weird without her.
Why’d I mention that they were Filipino? Because they called it a Filipino Thanksgiving.
Do they also refuse to eat Christmas dinner, but then come over right after we’re finished, and say it’s not Christmas dinner since it’s after everyone else is done?
Not that it bothers us–it actually upset us the one year they tried to be strict and refused to come over. (Turns out, it was just an excuse not to come over to the first Christmas since my grandmother died.) And it’s not the kid’s fault their parents are JWs. (It’s not like any of them kept the faith, either.)
It was easy for me to bow out of Thanksgiving gracefully - I got a job that obliges me to work most holidays. Sorry! Gotta work!
The bigger family gatherings are Labor Day weekend - family reunion - and Christmas. Those I make sure to have off and enjoy spending time with my huge extended family.
Since I work Thanksgiving, I always have Friday off. I stay home and cook stuff I like. This year I’m trying my hand at a roast duck. There will also be sausage stuffing, spiced cranberry-rum sauce, cornbread, and glazed bourbon carrots. A couple friends may be stopping by in the early evening to help with the extra food.
This year, my birthday is falling on Thanksgiving! Which means it’s today! Woohoo!
Anyways, I don’t have family in this state, so we are going to the racetrack to bet on horses and eat their free buffet, and then hopping back and forth between a few friends’ open houses. Maybe stopping by the bar or wandering around the French Quarter, too.