I’m with my parents, and as I recently commented on sdn‘s journal, our Thanksgiving plans are extremely low-key. Yes, there will be a turkey, and mashed potatoes and stuffing, and probably some vegetable dish TBD before the stores close today. Yes, Mom will get out fancy silver and china, and we’ll put a tablecloth on the table and use cloth napkins. But — no extended family.
No place cards,
no centerpiece,
no gendered expectations about who cooks and who cleans,
no plans to watch sports on television,
or to get up super-early on Friday for purposes of obtaining spectacular doorbuster discounts.
How do your Thanksgiving plans resemble, or not, the images of Thanksgiving presented in the media?
coppervale
November 22, 2006 at 10:09 amI do watch the parade, in part because it’s tradition – but also because Sophie (7) and Bug (3) are the right age to love it.
Dinner is midday. Then we leave it spread out to snack on (at my mother’s house), while we put on a tape of CAMELOT, and my brothers and I start a massive game of RISK (featuring Gupchuk the Eskimo Woman, the Scourge of Kamchatka).
So it’s then several hours of turkey-roll sandwiches; world conquest; singing Weird Al songs in three-part harmony while defending Australia; and Richard Harris.
quirkybird
November 22, 2006 at 10:18 amMan, I don’t think I’ve had anything approaching a traditional Thanksgiving since sometime in high school. Going to school in Connecticut kind of threw the whole thing off the standard tracks.
bondgwendabond
November 22, 2006 at 10:37 amFor the past several years, we host the refugee Thanksgiving. Any friends from far away who want to eschew the family celebration for the year come for a visit. At some point, we cook a huge Thai meal. The rest of the time we play geeky board games and drink and take long walks and hang out. It is the best ever.
And then we see the families for Christmas.
indulgent_el
November 22, 2006 at 1:50 pmIt will be a very traditional thanksgiving for us, except that it will be with somebody else’s family. My in-laws (who live an hour away) are sick and since I’m preggers I can’t risk getting ill. So we’re going to a friend’s family’s house. There will be 24 adults and 4 babies there (babies!). Everybody is bringing a dish (we’re making salad) and I suspect that both parade and football will be available for viewing. I look forward to eating turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and horse doobers and DESSERT. I doubt that there will be rules about who does what by gender, though : )
indulgent_el
November 22, 2006 at 1:51 pmp.s. You have a happy thanksgiving and say hi to Ohio for me.
moriath
November 22, 2006 at 8:09 pmI am going out to a restraunt with my family (mom, dad, brother, two grandparents). A restraunt that is so not-Thanksgiving that one of the meal options is spaghetti.
After lunch/dinner (I have no idea when it will be), at least my immediate family is going out to see ‘Happy Feet.’
And after that…I wallow here in Holland for another two+ days until someone can be bothered to take me home (I am already desperate to get back to my place)
saintsegar
November 23, 2006 at 11:37 amI actually enjoy slaving over a hot stove, so I’m home cooking at the moment (poached pears in raspberry sauce, from a recipe I found in a zine full of the favorite recipes of a young Seattle woman who was brain damaged in a car crash. A friend of hers compiled the zine). Soon it’s off to an early dinner at the mayor’s (aka, Matt Feazell’s wife, Karen) house. Then it’s over to the in-laws’ place for whatever’s going on over there, which most likely involves me entertaining my 6-year-old niece. With any luck we’ll catch the new 007 film tonight. Too much food and not enough time – must be the holidays.
anonymous
November 23, 2006 at 12:19 pmHi! I just read Empress of the World and I really liked it! I thought it was interesting and well written. I actually read it really fast (two days) which means it must have been good. Just thought I’d share!*
thisisnotanlj
November 23, 2006 at 4:15 pmthanks! :)
capn_jil
November 23, 2006 at 11:59 pmOurs is weirdly appropriate provided you don’t go looking too closely. I think there is a graph plottable about the relationship between how many relatives I’m around and how hard I’m going to be drinking, though.
anonymous
December 2, 2006 at 9:49 amI spent Thanksgiving teaching, moving and marking first year essays. Since I live in the UK this is not as anti-social as it sounds. All the Americans I know over here (including me) are reaching the end of one of the most dreadful semesters any of us can remember, so there were no festivities, not even a trip down the pub to watch the footie – as local tradition dictates for pretty much every night of the year…
I was so stressed that I wasn’t even homesick – weird, since I really love Thanksgiving and usually can’t get through the end of November without a serious turkey craving.
retro
November 17, 2007 at 7:17 amThis year my wife decided to have a dry run thanksgiving day to test out her recipes. We soaked the bird in a brine solution she got at William Sonoma, it really kept it moist. OMG, the turkey was so good and I get to do it again in a few days!