We’re having 21 for Thanksgiving today. This is in our much smaller house and it will be packed tight. I moved a shelving unit out of my office to accommodate a card table for 3. My office is just off the dining room. It was either this or send a chunk of the party to the game room in the basement. The living room and dining room are going to be really tight with 18 people. Several small tables and the coffee table are leaving the living room to accommodate our 8’ folding table. 4 generations in all.
My in-laws are in and it is the first time they’ve been to the new house. My daughter’s boyfriend’s parents who we’ve never met are joining us. And then my entire family. I hope this all works.
We’ve got two turkeys and a slow cooker ham for the main meal.
A giant stuffing is on its way. We’ll have both a sweet potato dish and mashed potatoes. Green Bean casserole. A smoked mac and cheese is on its way and lot of deserts. Also chips and dips and a charcuterie board. Loads of wine & beer, fresh made ice tea, apple cider, some soda and I guess water.
I’m heading out in 15 minutes for Holiday with 15-20 of my in-laws. For four hours. I’ll probably be one of the 4 or so NOT drinking. But there’s going to be so much drinking when I get home!
But the MST3k Turkey-day Marathon is always a bright spot, and the sub-freezing temps Sat and Sun means it’s time to enjoy a lovely fire.
To everyone, wishing you a holiday without too much post-feasting distress, and of course, safe travels to and from.
Happiest of Thanksgivings to you, too, @What_Exit! I know you have much to be thankful for this year – as do all we who know you.
You and your wife are ambitious!! I remember hosting those size gatherings, and no matter how effortless you make it look, it’s exhausting. The main thing to remember – as I’m sure you already well know – is to enjoy the family and all the good memories that will flow from that. Hope it all goes smoothly (it won’t, but that’s half the fun!) and that you all have a fabulous time!
Love the ASCII turkey, too.
I’m only hosting 2, but it’s still fun to do the whole bit. I’m doing chicken instead of turkey, but with all the usual traditional sides (sans green bean casserole, because none of us are fans). Serving only wine – none of us are big drinkers, but we may get through a couple of bottles today over an afternoon.
Hope everyone has a memorable, non-fraught, relaxing and fun holiday!
My sister and I were deserted by the rest of our family over the last several years, so it’s just the two of us. We’re having wienies (Hebrew National) and beans. I buy the plainest cans of Bush’s baked beans, then I doctor them with dried mustard, brown sugar, slow-fried diced onions, and crispy bacon bits (made from scratch). It’s currently in the oven at a low temp to slowly comingle all the ingredients.
Our concession to tradition is dessert – pumpkin pie and whipped cream.
There’s a mystery on Accorn that we’re going to watch starring Neville Longbottom for our entertainment.
I did get to pet a Yorkie and and Akita (named ZsaZsa!) on my morning walk and greeted several human neighbors, too.
Wow, that’s quite a gathering, @What_Exit ! Enjoy!. We are also hosting, but it’s just 10. Me, my husband, our two kids (both single), my sister and her husband, and my two brother, one with his wife and the other with his partner. Of those, only the second brother has kids, but they are all elsewhere today.
We are making a small (16 pound) turkey, with stuffing and gravy and butternut squash and apple dish. Because of my husband’s illness, i was able to foist off all the rest of the cooking on the guests . Oh, except for two pies i made yesterday.
My husband is in much better shape than when we made those plans, and was able to prepare the stuffing. I’m about to go see how much cleaning-up he accomplished. We will fit easily around the dining room table.
(Dinner is at 6, because the first brother also celebrated Thanksgiving with his wife’s enormous family. So we start late enough for them to do both. Also, i prefer to eat dinner at a regular meal time, and 1 is too early for me to have everything cooked. I really hate “big dinner at 3:30”.)
For a moment there, I thought you had included a diagram of your house layout - with a long narrow entryway and a rounded atrium leading to lots of smaller rooms in what turned out to be the tail.
It’s truly amazing to me how often you and I have the same ideas and same reaction to stuff despite our very different lives and upbringings in very different places.
I too don’t at all enjoy the big dinner in the early afternoon. It makes a hash out of the whole day and night. When I was in charge of feasts, they were dinners served at dinner time.
My T-day is low key this year. One of the lowest in a long time. No family, no friends doing anything, GF occupied w her adult kids, yada yada. So I’ve made reservations for one at a nearby French bistro run by a couple who’re great hosts & chefs. They’ve got a multiple choice prix fixe today with both traditional French items and some French takes on traditional American T-day fare. I’ll probably lean towards the non Thanksgiving choices. And yes, I’m dining at dinner time, not mid-afternoon.
I’ve certainly spent many holidays of all stripes on the road in hotels so this isn’t too weird for me. My last working T-day was 2021 and I recall eating one of the many turkey, etc., box lunches the hotel kitchen had made in the morning for the many crews staying there before they went home at noon-ish & left us to forage on our own until morning.
So there we all were, a couple dozen friends, acquaintances, and total strangers, having taken over the hospitality suite at the top of a Cleveland lakefront hotel, noshing on cold feast while watching the swirling snow outside as night fell.
Today has clouded up and it’s raining here and there, but right now mostly there. I’m thankful it’s much warmer: low 80s are great temps for feasting.
I bow before your ambition and dedication. I don’t know your age, but that’s heroic for anyone. One turkey and accompanying dishes for just the two of us about did me in.
Here in Canada we had ours back in early October, which I feel is much too early. I like the American tradition where Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, with Christmas less than a month away.
Enjoy your feasts! I will be dining much more modestly. The closest I will come to a turkey this weekend is a smoked turkey sub.
I have returned! I lived through another year of overly moist turkey, but no one got drunk enough to talk politics, and at least one Republican (not MAGA) family member was questioning some of the Orange one’s choices, so I even had some quiet schadenfreude. I just got the third load of dishes for the day started and the sink is finally empty, so now I’m trying to decide what adult beverage to indulge in, a very light dinner to plan for 8-9pm (protein, no more sugar or carbs please!), and enjoying the heck out of the MST3k Turkey Day stream, plus the remainder of the long weekend saying warm and well fed at home with my wife and cats.
-eyes Beck-
Hmmmm. I will overlook your planned shenanigans in light of the festive holiday!
As mentioned upthread I went to a French bistro tonight for my feast. Which was wonderful and I am now home and replete.
We have a large Quebecois snowbird crowd here every year and despite the current criminal regime in DC, many Canadians, QC or otherwise, are braving the potential slings and arrows of US law enforcement to escape the guaranteed slings and arrows of Canadian winter.
At dinner tonight I was listening around the room and about half the conversations were in French. Those folks get to have two Thanksgivings, one in early October and another again in late November.
Doesn’t seem such a bad arrangement. Two thanksgivings; yet another advantage of Canadian-ness. Perhaps you could try it. You don’t even need to travel here to do it.
]
