As a nurse, I am surprised that for the first time in a few years, I am not working on Thanksgiving. My family has been really awesome to move Turkey Day to Saturday for me, though, so I have not completely missed the feast very often.
Thanksgiving will be nice. Everyone is a great cook, we all pitch in on the food, and the clean up. My daughter hosts, and everyone is free to bring along anyone who is at loose ends. I make the turkey and gravy and there is always enough food for days. We buy/bring take home containers.
This will be the first major holiday since my husband died, so I suspect there will be some tears.
Some sort of synthetic tofu “turkey” monstrosity, gluten-free pseudo-stuffing, cauliflower faux mashed potatoes, vegetable gravy/caulking paste and a couple raw veggie side dishes. Mmm … mmm, good!!!—a feast to rival that savored by the Plymouth colony pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe in 1621. :rolleyes: (… please help me!).
Unbeknownst to my rabid vegan daughters, I’ve sequestered a package of 3 smoked turkey necks in the freezer. My “alibi” is that I bought them for our dog and cat (both of whom are unabashed non-vegans).
My devious plan is to cook up those 3 smoked turkey necks on T-day, put one in the dog’s bowl, one in the cat’s bowl … and the last one in my bowl, hidden under a layer of mashed cauliflower.
Back in northern Virginia I have friends who throw a lavish Friendsgiving for a huge group every year. It’s a wonderful time and my favorite holiday tradition.
This year it’s just me and my SO in Florida, where our social life isn’t as robust. We do have a couple of friends who invited us for Thanksgiving, but then they decided to travel to see family. Fair enough.
I’m the cook in the relationship and I’d be glad to do so for the holiday, but SO specifically asked me not to - he’d rather just spend a nice day with me watching movies and such, instead of me spending hours in the kitchen. So we’ve stocked up on a variety of side dishes from Honeybaked Ham, and we’ve ordered a half turkey breast and a half ham that we’ll need to pick up.
Aside to FairyChatMom: I’m in Ocala - maybe we’ll run into each other!
My wife and I both work retail grocery and at least one of us usually works Thanksgiving (this year it is her, but I let those at my job know I can come in if necessary). After dealing with the craziness that is the week leading up to Thanksgiving, it is is our tradition to spend the evening together watching TV after heating up a frozen pizza. We will do that again this year.
