I have a chicken pot pie. 
I couldn’t get a turkey pot pie.
I’m sorry so many of you are either lonely or down over the holiday. Doesn’t matter why; it sucks to be sad. Here’s wishing all o’ ya (northern for “y’all”) make it through the day peacefully.
I almost feel guilty admitting I love being alone on holidays. It’s probably the result of way too many festive meltdowns and scenes by my alcoholic ex. Hey, it’s a holiday! Time to get shitfaced and belligerent!
Anyway, they’re great now. l buy and cook exactly what I feel like. This year was very seafood intensive: king crab legs, drawn butter w/ lime and smoked salmon for nibbles. Even woke up early, cuddled the pup (I’m thankful my loving girl is still alive and happy at 15), we went for a long walk and enjoyed the sunshine. Came home, got her tucked into her bed then tackled some cleaning: pumped loud music and boogied around making the kitchen gleam and generally chucking out clutter.
Then showered, sat down to my crab and salmon (bottle of good white wine to go with; don’t remember what it is) followed by a lovely, luxurious little nap. This afternoon is either a book or maybe a Serenity or LOTR flick.
For Christmas I’m thinking of making my sister’s wonderful potato rolls and munching on those w/ slivers of Smithfield ham. Get in an array of interesting mustards and pickled nibbles, maybe a couple of really good cheeses…
When I was rather younger, here in the U.K., it used to be the done thing to invite those of your friends who were alone round for the Christmas meal (we don’t have Thanksgiving), so they wouldn’t be alone. People don’t seem to do that any more.
I guess being along on Thanksgiving can suck, I was alone today and perfectly happy, it was my choice, the pity invites are no fun, and even if they aren’t pity, you just end up in the middle of family drama. Its family time and mine is 2336 miles away(slightly shorter as the crow flies).
The worst part of today was talking to my mom, she was pretty sad I wasn’t there, and I really don’t feel like going back for Christmas either, most of the rest of my family is a PIA. Oh well, at least I didn’t have to listen to my aunt talk non stop, I do miss part of the family, but its just another day.
I guess I’ll grab a flight and pop in on my folks for a few days around Christmas. Get a friend to grab me at the airport and just show up and walk in. I did that about 5 years ago when my folks were on vaca in Florida at a friend of the family’s. She damn near passed out and then cried for 2 hours. That was a planned conspiracy with my old man.
Sorry for the babbling. What my aunt does, since she is even further away from the rest of the family than I am, she volunteers at the soup kitchen. She started doing it when she moved far away, kept doing it after she got married, kept doing it after she had a kid and then after she got divorced kind of relied on it. From what I can tell she is on the regular soup kitchen routine, she doesn’t say much if anything about it, but when I’ve been out visiting her she had to take off for a few hours for her “shift”.
To me its just another day, but there is always somebody somewhere thinking of you. I have a pile of text messages from an X today to prove that.
Well, it didn’t suck. I did virtually nothing all day. Watched some football, read the Dope, tried to fight ignorance with people who think Obama is not a citizen, bashed my head against a brick wall… Oh, wait. That last was more of the penultimate one. Ate a chicken pot pie.
Shayna said I could come down to feast with her and Spiny Norman. But they’re 1,200 miles away and I have to take the car in for its overdue 60K maintenance. (I appreciate the offer though! 
) My boss told me yesterday I should join them today. That was nice of her. But I thought I’d just veg today.
The nearest I came to Thanksgiving this year was yesterday, when I gave a nice big (fresh, fragrant) apple to an old woman begging at a stop light. I figured she needed it more than I did, and I have some little apples in the fridge.
Now I have a fire going, and I’m finally getting around to watching Coffee And Cigarettes (which I should have done a long time ago, since I’m a fan of Jim Jarmusch’s films).
You’re always welcome, Johnny!
We spent the first part of our day helping serve Thanksgiving meals to between 1,500 and 2,000 people, with the Fred Jordan Mission in downtown Los Angeles. I fasted all day to remind myself that many of these people go hungry on a regular basis.
On the way home, we decided at the last minute to go ahead and make a semi-traditional Thanksgiving meal for ourselves. So we stopped at the grocery store and bought the fixin’s for mashed russet potatoes, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and half a chicken to roast. Then we had apple pie and coffee for dessert a couple of hours after dinner (the tummies needed time to rest!).
Pictures from our day:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
I hope you folks who were alone ended up enjoying your day afterall!
Didn’t see a soul yesterday, and had a delightful day-- took a walk in the forest just as people were sitting down to dine, so the forest was utterly deserted, bought and cooked a pork roast with asparagus, watched one of my all-time favorite movies on TV while cooking and eating the roast (CONTACT with Jodie Foster), and then I read a friend’s new novel that I’ve been putting off reading until I found a free day. (I filled in my free time, of course, posting here from time to time as well.) I’m probably not going to see anyone today either, just paint as soon as the sun comes up, and then go for another long walk in the woods.
The social nature of the holidays is over-rated, I think. I’ve had enough of that to last me several more lifetimes.
As someone who appreciates the value of solitude, Happy Thanksgiving.
A single guy in my neighborhood hosts a “T-Day Cookout” starting at 5 p.m. Everyone comes over and he grills in the dark, serving hot dogs, beans, s’mores and all the leftovers people bring. It has become a tradition–a nice, informal way to end the day.
This sounds like heaven to me. I’m glad you had a good day. I spent it with my asshole-ish SIL’s husband, her and their wild children. Oh, and my MIL (who spent a good half hour complaining about the harvest gold carpeting that was REMOVED and REPLACED with the baby pink she adores oh, about 15 years ago. Whatever.)
Personally I’m fine spending holidays alone; as Ann Landers (or was it Dear Abby?) used to remind people, it’s better to be alone than wish you were. It does help that I live in a large city in a neighborhood with a lot of non-citizens; if I lived somewhere that shuts down on holidays and where the neighbors all know each other’s plans, being alone would be tough.
My mother died this past February, so this is the first holiday season my brother and I have to decide for ourselves what to do, if anything. We both hate cooking and hosting.
Yesterday my brother came into town and we had Thanksgiving dinner at a neighborhood 24-hour diner. We weren’t the only customers, and at least one table held what appeared to be an actual family group, with at least 2 if not 3 generations represented. The staff were pleasant and the turkey sandwiches were tasty.
I may spend next Thanksgiving on a train to Chicago to attend Chicago Tardis, something I think I’d enjoy but never considered while my mother was alive.
What we’ll do for Christmas remains to be seen. Go to Chinatown and see what’s open, maybe.