Many return home to the nest for a home cooked meal to parents and grand parents and brothers and sisters to family and friends.
Many dine out alone or with others if they can find a restaurant open that is. I know most fast food places and breakfast restaurants are closed.
Churches and mission ministries are sometimes open for the street people, but what about you?
Are you happy this time of year? Is it good or bad?
I’ve stayed home alone for so many years that I enjoy preparing a meal and watching the Macy Day parade and the football games (three this year).
I’m a happy camper fat, full and happy by the end of the day and I give thanks for no one yelling at me or telling me I’m sloppy and to take off my pj’s and put on a tie.
Thanksgiving is good and allows me to have four days off, plus shop online for black Friday deals.
Not so great. Family division cancelled the “normal” stuff everyone in a house and then stuff them with food, watch football, scan the black Friday ads.
For the past few years, my mom has made a small dinner for me, my daughter, and a few friends of my mom. This year, she decided to cancel. Instead, we’re going out for lunch.
My daughter works all day, still wants a traditional dinner, so for the first time ever, I’m making turkey, stuffing, etc.
Afterwards, we’ll go see a movie.
It’s kind of sad.
Sad this year - I’ll be alone, since my spouse died in April and I apparently don’t have any friends around here willing/able to include me with their plans (would be fine if I turn out to be wrong on that, but not expecting it).
I do have a sister in Buffalo, but working retail taking the necessary number of days off to make the trip just wasn’t going to happen.
So I told work I’d volunteer to be on the schedule for Thanksgiving because sitting home alone was just too unbearable a notion.
It’s my favorite holiday, as I’m sure I’ve said several times on this MB. You don’t have to buy any presents, and you get to eat a fantastic meal. We usually call it quits around noon on Wed, and then 4 1/2 days of doing mostly what you want. This year, the weather is supposed to be fantastic here in NorCal (70s, mostly) and rain only up north. I usually go for a long hike or a bike ride in the morning, then meet up with wherever I’m going (sometimes I host, but not very often) by around 2:00. We have lots of good wine, great food and even good conversation. Politics is put aside, and we just have fun. Friday will be golf.
I’m so sorry Broomstick. Those first few years of holiday seasons are rough.
As a long-time widow (17 years), I suggest you fish around for an invitation. Seriously. I guarantee that each of those people who might invite you assumes you have plans.
After six months or so, you have to be the one to reach out. Sadly, they will not get it until it happens to them.
I tried the reach out thing for Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day… I got promises and invites, only to have last minute cancellations.
The truth is while I have some very, very good friends I consider as close as family the closest one is 250 miles away.
I just don’t have close friends nearby. My spouse and I were a tight couple, which was good while it lasted but not so much to the extent neither of us socialized much otherwise.
I do have an invite for Christmas, from someone who did me the courtesy of NOT doing the invite-oh-yes-we’d-be-glad-to-have-you-oops-not-so-much gambit so that one I’m tending to trust. The other thing is that my list of food allergies can be troublesome for socializing around food. So that doesn’t help, either.
At this point being alone, however unpleasant, is less painful than the invite-and-cancel merry-go-round.
I am getting out of the house and socializing outside of work, but it takes time to build relationships.
Good for me. My family is fine and I’m happy to visit my sister’s this year for dinner. Plus she’s one of those wacky Black Friday people so we’re eating early so she can hit the stores later. Which means I get a nice meal plus get back on my couch before the evening gets too late.
My son started working for Target and is scheduled to start on Thursday evening. But since we were breaking up early it’s no big thing. Plus he’s all jazzed up about making holiday pay.
On years when we don’t get together with relatives, my wife leaves it to me to cook. She’s originally from Peru and says that if I want some Pilgrims & Indian American Mythology Feast, I’m on my own. But I enjoy putting it together and everyone in the house enjoys eating it. Plus I get a turkey carcass for soup making.
We’ll join the family for a home-cooked meal at my grandma’s house as we have always done. I feel… apprehensive, as I do whenever the family gets together, but truthfully everyone will probably behave and we’ll have a nice time.
Every year around this time, I’m not in the mood and I wish we could just cancel the holidays. However, pragmatically I understand that this is a thing that must be done to maintain family ties and it doesn’t happen if we don’t schedule it. I still wish to maintain family ties and this is the appointed time, so (deep breath) let’s git’r’done.
Divorce (parents), death, in-laws, and extended step-family drama have all turned the holiday season in general into something that is maybe a ghost of what it once was for me.
This might sound corny, but have you considered volunteering at a local place that does Thanksgiving dinner for homeless or other people without the means to celebrate? Besides being a good deed, you might connect with some local folks worth getting to know.
Otherwise, sorry for your loss, and I hope things work out well for Christmas!
It’s so-so. I enjoy having the time off over Thanksgiving and Christmas (even though I still go into the school and do things, there’s no schedule pressure), and I can get caught up on sleep.
However, I hate this time of year because of the goddam idiots who run stores and radio stations and think we need to have Christmas music shoved down our throats 24/7.
I enjoy the turkey dinner, but this year will be the first where we don’t have one. Stepdaughter is now living in Denver and can’t make it home and stepson has decided they would rather go out, so we are going for a restaurant dinner this year. We’re still gonna buy a turkey and make gumbo, though! Probably the same for Christmas.
I remember all the good times of when my family got together for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I look forward to both holidays every year in hopes it will be good ones. Never are anymore since the family doesn’t get together. Making a big dinner for me and the husband is just a lot of work for too much food. And all the dishes. Yuck.
Making a turkey breast this year so less mess, less waste, for us. Mashed potatoes, meat and peas, maybe rolls. Cheese cake for him and pumpkin pie for me. (Cheesecake made from creme cheese and cool whip, the hardest part of that is the crust! I like turkey sandwiches after the holidays though.
Doing Thanksgiving and other holidays at a big community event is a good idea, but what hurts about those holidays alone when you’re newly widowed is that you don’t belong anywhere anymore. Yeah, you can make a place for yourself, and people do-- we all do eventually-- but it was nice when you belonged somewhere, when it was a given that you and this other person (or people) would spend this family-oriented time together and you didn’t have to go rooting around for someplace to take you in.
For a while it was straight-up cursed - people would attempt suicide, die, get sick, the whole schmear. Cars would break down or crash, snowstorms would strike, it was all a bad mess. That’s not been the case for a long time, though. I think the Bad Thanksgiving folks have all either died or gotten divorced out of the family, so now it’s generally good.
I guess it’s what you make it. I’ve always loved the holidays, but a death knocks you down. Our son died in Feb, 2015 and everything is harder now. But we continue on because it’s something we have to do. Otherwise I’d be in a corner in the fetal position. My husband and I have hosted Thanksgiving for the family for quite a few years now. We have anywhere from 12 to 16 people. I cook the turkeys and everyone else brings the sides. So that’s a huge help.
Our son is always on our minds and nothing will change that. We remember him in our prayer before the meal and like any other get together tell funny stories about him. We have to be able to laugh. Together we all soldier on…
I love it! It is the one time of year I get to eat mashed potatoes and gravy! And I love them.
The Northeners (Canadians and Yanks) get together at a nice restaurant. It is a pot luck and food drive for the community. Last year we had about 150. And fifty percent were local natives. Everyone is invited, but it is not a holiday here and many are working.
This year I volunteered to make the gravy. It was horrible last year.
