My absolute best/finest/craziest thanksgiving ever happened a year I wasn’t “with” anyone. A bartender I knew invited me to her lonely thanksgiving party. It was a party for single people who had no place to go.
A friend I hadn’t seen in ages was there. Neither of us knew the other was friends with the bartender. There were a few other people I knew, but didn’t really “know”. There was a freaking band that was stranded in Pittsburgh after playing a thanksgiving eve gig (Anthony Gomes Blues Band from Canada) and they ended up doing some songs and sing-alongs.
I look forward to the holidays. I enjoy spending time with family. Is it a lot of work? Oh yea! But everyone pitches in with food and cleanup. There are different political views amongst us, but that doesn’t stop us from loving each other. We’re all allowed to have our own opinions. Politics don’t come up very often in our conversations. There are more important things to talk about. We talk about kids, old memories, tv, etc. We might play a board game while some of the others watch a football game. This year’s holidays will be the first without my sister who took her own life just a few months ago. Like I said, there are more important things.
I would never disown family or friends over politics.
For normal political differences, I would agree. Supporting someone who could very possibly destroy everything we love about this country? That’s different.
Back to the topic, I mildly dislike Thanksgiving, and hate Christmas with a fiery passion. We have no Trumpers in our family, so I’m happy to see them all whenever we can. If we can find a restaurant open on the holidays, that’s ideal
It sounds like you do know. If you “really really” don’t want to do something that you have no obligation to do, don’t do it. (free advice)
I’m tired of making a ton of food that no one ever eats. This year it will be one main (turkey), two sides (potatoes & demi glace, green bean casserole) and one dessert (pumpkin cupcakes). Anyone else want to bring food? Have at it.
Yes, it is awkward when people do not behave as you wish them to. I suppose one might politely talk about your political views. You know, conversation.
My thanksgiving must-have is canned cranberry sauce. The gelled one in the can, that PLOPS out. Nothing reminds me more of “home thanksgiving”. I miss you, mom!
Thanksgiving is great! It’s a harvest holiday that all can celebrate. No matter your religion, or lack of one, you can celebrate a bountiful harvest & having food. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. If you don’t like your family do a Friendsgiving. Football on TV or play it for real (Ye Olde House of Worship men’s club had a touch football game against Ye Other House of Worship men’s club)
We used to get eight Federal holidays & two floating holidays for two weeks off (+ vacation). MLK Jr Day was added to the calendar & we’re all like, “He’s the greatest dude, getting an extra holiday for him! Woo-Hoo!”
Then they came out with the new calendar for the next year, nine Federal holidays & one floater, so basically one of our floaters, that we could use whenever we wanted, like on a nice, warm summer day was converted to having to be used in mid-Jan when it’s cold & dark out & we were all like, “that mumblety-mumble He didn’t celebrate our birthdays, why do we gotta celebrate his?”
From the start of our marriage, Thanksgiving was a source of stress. Each of our families were firmly centered, almost cemented, in locations about 1500 miles apart, and my husband worked for one of those companies who liked to shift their management people between various regional offices every couple of years, and none of those offices were anywhere near either of the family enclaves. So after some really stress filled years of various compromises that left no one really happy, we just declared we wouldn’t do traditional holiday get togethers.
And, given it was just us two, who ate meals together virtually every day anyway, the idea of the traditional huge feast just seemed silly. But there were some aspects on each side that really ‘meant Thanksgiving’ to us, so we decided we would take turns and say what were the “must haves.”
It went:
Hubby: turkey
Me: elaborate relish tray
Hubby: mashed potatoes and gravy
Me: pumpkin pie
Hubby: Uh. I don’t really care about anything else.
Me: Hmm. I hate that awful green bean/goop thing, but I guess we need some vegetable. Broccoli? Peas?
Hubby. Peas are okay. Uh, those little rolls? They make for nice left over turkey sandwiches.
And that was it. It’s changed over the years. At first we did a whole turkey (the smallest we could find), then a turkey breast, and now we’re down to doing just a couple of turkey tenderloins and buying the gravy. And the pie turned into just baked pumpkin custard served with vanilla ice cream.
But we still have the extensive relist trays, with at least six types of pickles and four kinds of olives and three different cranberry relishes and stuffed celery and so forth.
Hey, it just means we have a good store of such things to have along with whatever else we eat for the next few weeks.
I’m not done with it, but I wish my kids (or at least one of them) would step up to organize things instead of making me come begging. Maybe this year I just won’t say a fucking word and see what happens.
A number of years back I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for a friend, and her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. I cooked a turkey breast in my crockpot and we bought a collection of sides from Boston market. Minimal effort (the hardest thing was clearing off all the junk from my dining room table) and I even had some leftover turkey for later.
Last year, and hopefully this year, my friend is coming over and we had turkey dinners delivered from Wegmans.
I hate the family aspect of it. My family usually goes to my dad’s mom’s house, but she’s gotten quite into alcoholism over the past 6 years after her husband died, so she isn’t that fun to be around anymore. This year we’re just gonna go out of town and cook our own meal to have just the four of us. I much prefer that alternative.
Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday when it was at its most hectic. Now that mom is gone and we have to figure out what we are doing it’s not fun anymore. I still want my turkey.
