I’m off Wednesdays normally. If I work Black Friday, no traffic and only 1 work day between 2 full “weekends”; if I take off Black Friday, 5 day weekend!
Family. It’s the only major holiday we spend with my aunt, my cousins, their kids, etc. It’s the largest gathering of family all year long. At Christmas everyone is with their own small family group, but at Thanksgiving we all gather at my cousin’s house.
Good food, and you don’t have to buy presents for anyone! (Well, that last part isn’t really true if you are a guest somewhere. But when I am, it’s easy-- dessert or flowers or a couple bottles of wine. Or all 3!!)
There will be about 16 relatives at Thanksgiving. Many will bring a particular dish. Mine is cranberry (not sure it is a sauce or jelly, as it has about ½ of the cranberries still whole) based. Includes some sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dash of hot pepper sauce. I’ve been doing this for at least 25 years, and people actually eat It!
But the very best part is seeing all of my nieces, great nieces, and great grand nieces. None of these people are my genetic kin as I married into the tribe. But oddly enough I am the old silver back who will be expected to carve the turkey. That is probably because I taught biology for many years. Maybe I can show one of the younger guys how to carve…
So spending the day visiting - no football for this guy - and cooking and cleaning, and corralling the kids. Lots of hugs, and no fights. Wonderful.
I really like that there are no expectations other than getting together; yakking, watching either of two large flatscreens, taking pictures, calling those who can’t be there, and planning for Christmas is really nice.
And the food is pretty good too!
Pumpkin pie ice-cream. I’ll stash several gallons in the freezer before the end of the month. And save at least one gallon for July.
Gravy. Properly made, wonderful turkey gravy
Being with family. This year my nephew, his wife, and daughter, and my niece will be at my sisters. I haven’t seen nephew, etc in 2 years so I am beyond excited. We are going to another relative’s house for dinner and her cooking is mediocre at best.
It’s never a wrong time to have Chinese food.
My pecan pie.
Family matriarch Grandma Jean (on my wife’s side of the family, that is) used to have 100 percent control over the menu and the cooking, but she can’t handle that any more and so the family crowdsources its family meals (Thanksgiving, Christmas, other events). I have become the family’s Pastry Chef.
Everybody raves about my pecan pie, and they’re not just being polite - 20 years I’ve spent amongst these people, and I can tell when they’re blowing smoke. So good is my pecan pie that my brother-in-law’s pot dealer offers me every year to trade a pie for a dimebag.
The thing is, there is absolutely nothing special about my pecan pie. I follow the recipe on the Karo Corn Syrup website to the letter. The crust I make is a cheap & quick version that an 8-year-old can make. The only difference is that I use fresh pecans* instead of store-bought.
*I live in a part of the country where, if you threw a rock, there’s a one-in-five chance it will hit a pecan tree. Sometimes, in the town where I do my grocery shopping, there will be a guy selling them off the back of his truck. Other times, my father-in-law will gift me and Mrs. Homie a bucket of pecans that he gathered from his farm. Either way, I use fresh ones when I can get them (which isn’t always).