Thanksgiving is usually my favorite holiday of the year. For more than 20 years our whole family has gotten together at my parent’s place and we’ve had a wonderful feast.
But this year I’m missing the activities. My wife and I aren’t going travelling, we’re staying by ourselves several hundred miles away. It’s a little bit lonely.
There’s a wonderful reason, however: My wife is only two weeks or so from giving birth to our first child, a boy!
suranyi, congratulations! That’s an awesome reason not to go traveling. Lots of prayers and best wishes!
Congrats! And Happy Thanksgiving to the two (and a half) of you.
Oh, congratulations on your impending arrival!
My family is not big on the extended family get-together thing…the wildest we ever do is to go to my brother’s house three miles away. I haven’t had a holiday meal with my sister since she got married 25 years ago, and when I was married and lived out of state we rarely came back home for the holidays. So I’m not a good expert on these things. But I wonder…doesn’t your wife ever wish she could spend Thanksgiving with HER parents instead of yours? I’m often curious about how people handle this when one partner’s family is big on having everyone at their house every year.
Every couple of years my brother’s wife has her whole family over for Turkey day, so it’s not like I’ve no experience with it…but for example, this year I cooked at my house, and though we invited my brother and his family, we didn’t really want them to come, and they really wanted to have a Thanksgiving with just the four of them this year (which meant no Grandma, either…she ate with us, but then…she lives with us!) It was so nice to just have dinner by ourselves, in our own house, with the dishes we like…my favorite stuffing, for example, which my brother’s family doesn’t like. (We saved him a plate of it to eat when he stops by later in the week)
When I got married and moved away from home, my parents were very insistent that we consider starting our own traditions in our own home…while they loved the few opportunities we had to visit at a holiday time, they didn’t insist on us being there on that day. So we didn’t have to pick between his family or my family. So how do you decide whose family wins the holiday prize each year…did your wife have any say in all the previous years?
And the best part of celebrating at home? This year I have turkey leftovers and can have more than one turkey sandwich…and the infamous stuffing/mashed potato casserole!
(and it’s not like we didn’t SEE my brother and his family yesterday…the nieces stopped by to see Grandma in the morning!)
worst Turkey Day was with an ex who’s family sort of put the fun in dysfunctional…family darn near got ME into a fist fight when I was there. I left and hitchhiked the 150 miles home, packed his shit and out it in a storage locker and changed the locks. Best decision of my then young life.
I have had a lot of best thanksgivings, usually involving great food and family, or adopted family. Funnest thanksgiving involved inviting some guys off mrAru’s sub. One poor city dweller did not realize that the fresh turkey involved trooping out and picking the best looking one right then and there, chopping the head off, plucking and cooking it 
Honestly, it never occurred to us that wasn’t an appropriate thing to do on thanksgiving [but then again the other guys there were all appalachian hillbilly types who used to go and kill their supper on a regular basis :D]
Thanks for your (and everyone’s) best wishes!
Actually, our tradition has been to go to my family for Thanksgiving, and to my wife’s family for Christmas. This works well for all families, with no acrimony on anyone’s part.
Obviously, things will be different this year! We expect to have a new baby before Christmas, so the families will have to come visit us.