Thanksgiving Plans?

[MacKinnon]

Just wondering what everyone is up to for Thanksgiving (well, our American mommies!). We are busy as usual All of our parents live within 30 miles so we don't have to travel far at all but we do get obligated to see everyone. We enjoy a lunch time Thanksgiving meal with my IL's and then a dinner time Thanksgiving meal with my mom's extended family. The day after Thanksgiving we will have dinner with my Dad and his girlfriend and at least one of her three children. Then on Saturday we have that class reunion I posted about a month or so ago. The three Thanksgiving meals are always fun They are SO different! My MIL is a very, very traditional cook. My uncle (who cooks our family Thanksgiving) is a gourmet chef and nothing is remotely traditional. Although we do have a turkey and trimmings.... Then my Dad usually makes something else all together because he has already done Thanksgiving the day before with his girlfriend's family. I'm wondering how much I will have gained when I go to my appointment on Nov. 27!! :

[BeagleMommy]

Well, I just found out that I am going to be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my MIL. She's the local manager of a large restaraunt chain about 1 1/2 hrs from my home and they just finished a remodel so she will be off Thanksgiving day, but will work Wednesday night until probably 2:30 a.m. And she's right back at it on Friday morning. And since we are her nearest family, we will be cooking at her house. And we don't even know if my SIL and kids will be in or not. And then we get to leave MIL and drive 1hr 45 min to my folks. I'm tired just thinking about it.

[stormgirl]

We don't have any family nearby, but most of our friends do, so we don't have any plans as of today. Planning feels out of reach, and since I do all of our planning, and dp just accepts and attends, we may just do nothing at all...we'll see. Sometimes we get invited to someone else's house, but I don't think that's happening this year. I'll have to put a turkey order in soon though!

[earcher]

Dh's parents and brother are driving (6hrs) to come and spend the weekend with us. So I'm cooking. We are going to explain the homebirth to them that weekend. I don't really want to but Dh insists. his Mom freaked when we found out this pregnancy was twins saying "OMG don;t let her have them at home like Olivia!" and "well, you might have to be a c-section' and "you know twins always come early" so, it could be a big bomb of a weekend. (I have already told my Mom)

My family is 6 hours away also they are coming out to celebrate christmas/thanksgiving Dec. 9th since I don;t want to travel 6 hours being preggo with twins

My goals is to not do too much!

[BlissP]

We always spend T-giving with my inlaws who are about a three hour drive away. It's just the two of them, so we also join with another family - friends they have been sharing the holiday with since DH was a baby. It should be fun, and plenty of help with the kids, which is good, because I will have a hard enough time just trying to reach the table over my gigantor belly.

My biggest issue is that I am really trying to maintain a very strict diet for my diabetes. So I am trying to plan an eating strategy, so I don't get sidetracked. Luckily (unluckily?) there will actually be an endocrinologist at dinner with us (one of the family friends.) And actually, since I really don't care for their dinner that much (it's just not like my family's....these people don't even eat mashed potatoes, and it's just stove top stuffing from a box), I should be able to save my carb allowance for a piece of pumpkin pie!

[storychick]

We've changed plans a few times. We were originally having no family around, so we hooked up with our "other family" (good friends we have dinner with every night nearly and so on) and were going to make a Turducken for fun. Then her parents and brother invited themselves out, so we were going to do a big feast at their house. Now MY parents decided to come out also, so we are doing separate family events (her parents and my parents would NOT be a good combo lol). Of course this means now I have to cook, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I don't mind. Plus I have my mom to do the dishes!

We'll have to save the turducken for Christmas.

[swtpesq]

Normally I cook a big T-day meal (minus the turkey, since I don't eat meat), and my MIL makes a turkey, and we all (our whole family - all 6 of us!) eat at our house (we live half way between my mom and MIL)...this year, though, I said I don't want to clean or cook or do anything, so we're going to a local barbecue restaurant that has a special T-day meal. I'll have cranberry sauce on my veggie burger, and maybe some sweet potato chips.

[Ahappymel]

Well...
We will visit dh's family but not eat there since we are vegan...
And furthermore, my dh is raw...so I think we are coordinating a potluck with my best friend and have a half raw/half vegan potluck : )

[tempestjewel]

Well, I'm completely insane because I'm having twelve people over here for Thanksgiving dinner. Granted, I'm not cooking all of it as I willingly delegated out most of the side dishes (the ones I didn't care about having leftovers from ). I did buy Chinet plates so I won't have to wash dishes and my DH and my dad who lives with us are officially on clean-up duty. I really enjoy cooking though, so I don't think it'll be too bad, but maybe I'm just incredibly naive

[meggles]

We're going to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Its about 40 minutes away. I'll probably make something to bring, but that's going to be the extent of my cooking. I am, however, excited to eat all of the wonderful things that my mom and dad are bound to make.

The day after Thanksgiving, we're driving 3 hours north to Mendocino (on the Pacific coast) to have a last getaway before the baby comes. Our anniversary was last week, so we're celebrating that too.

[Electra375]

No family near by and we wouldn't go anyway with our dietary issues and past experiences. My parents are out of the country until they retire. My ILs are in either TX or OK, they don't tell us. My sister is in FL, well over a days drive away.

I cook a Gluten Free Thanksgiving meal for the 5 of us (and Christmas). That is the new tradition since last year and it will just stick. Even if we went somewhere I would have to cook a full meal to bring a meal for my Celiacs that I could be sure were free from cross contamination. From turkey to deserts all GF and my kitchen is GF now -- so no one can bring anything into my house with gluten either.

Prior to that, I took full advantage of Cracker Barrel on many Thanksgiving occassions especially pregnant! I did not want to cook dinner and feel obligated to invite up my MIL and her 3H who lived with us for 5 1/2 yrs (free of all financial obligations), so I made sure we left and they could fend for themselves especially in the last few years before I told them their time here was expired and they had to move out.

I prefer the holidays without "family". I never hear anything good from most folks, there is always a grip about something. I'm right there griping too and the frustration isn't worth it.

For example: My ds1's first Christmas my dh insisted that we go see his sister in IA. I was a little less than 8 wks PP and still having a lot of healing issues and bfing issues. We got there and had to sleep on the floor. My dh's mother and step dad were on the sofa bed, they were there too. Christmas morning came and went with everyone ripping into gifts and not paying on bit of attention to anyone else -- all about the "me's" and then his sister, her dh and children disappeared for a time upstairs. They later came down all decked out and stated they were going to his family's house for Christmas dinner and a crock pot of chili was heating up for us!!! We loaded up the car and left before they returned! My MIL was just as peturbed with her daughter and if she had known and been forthright with us, my MIL would have had a turkey etc. But on Christmas day, that was not happening.

And my dh made me endure another Christmas this last time pregnant on the floor again with his family. After that disasterous 2003 Christmas I laid down the new traditions law!

"The actual days of any holiday are going to be spent with our immediate family - you, me and our children. If you want to take the kids to see your family, we will make arrangements to do that either before the holiday or after. And I will do the same. I have no problem if family wants to be here with us, but we are not traveling to anyone elses house for the holiday. We are making our own traditions and developing what we want for our kids to remember." The next year we were dealing with CD and the GF diet, problem solved.

Can you tell I have some real issues...

[Ahappymel]

Originally Posted by Electra375

They later came down all decked out and stated they were going to his family's house for Christmas dinner and a crock pot of chili was heating up for us!!!

Can you tell I have some real issues...

OH MY GOSH! You are not the one with issues!

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by Ahappymel

Well...
We will visit dh's family but not eat there since we are vegan...
And furthermore, my dh is raw...so I think we are coordinating a potluck with my best friend and have a half raw/half vegan potluck : )

Where *are* you? And how come it isn't closer to me? We could have a nice potluck and my daughter can meet other vegans. She asked the other day if we are the only vegans in the entire world.

[janerose]

We're traveling 4 hrs south to do Thanksgiving with DH's family. We alternate family from year to year since my family lives here and DH's lives away. It should be fun though. We're off Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. Plus the ILs are keeping DD for a couple days so we'll have Mon just DH & I at home : then MIL and I will meet up 1/2 way on Tues or Wed to get DD back.

Also, that Saturday is DH's 10 yr class reunion so we've got that to go to. That should be fun. DH & I met when he was 17 and in his 2nd week of college. We married when he was 19. He's now 27 and has a wife of 8+ yrs, a 2 yo, plus one on the way, owns a home, and has 7 yrs of professional experience. The few people he's spoken to since graduating are pretty much all still doing the single thing, just finishing up grad school, or *maybe* engaged. I'm sure we'll get lots of interesting questions...especially with me being 32 wks preggo.

Holly

[MacKinnon]

Originally Posted by janerose

Also, that Saturday is DH's 10 yr class reunion so we've got that to go to. That should be fun.

Holly

My & DH's ten year class reunion is that very same day! We met in high school, went to college together, got married shortly after and now have DD and are expecting #2 (obviously...). He isn't from Michigan is he?

[The Firebird]

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house. My ILs live about five hours away and I sort of said that I don't really want to travel that long at 33 weeks because it is just uncomfortable and I have to pee to often. Anyways, they have a vacation house about two blocks from us so they are coming up and bringing my husbands grandparents too. Last year when we still lived in that part of Texas my MIL and I spent days preparing for a dinner for over 30 people and it totally wiped us out ... neither of us wanted to repeat that this year ... especially not me at 33 weeks. So really it works out because neither of us have to commit to a marathon Thanksgiving.

I am doing most of the cooking ... but I don't mind because I guess in some ways I am a control freak about how food is prepared. That and this gives me some control over what kind of food is served ... I am originally from Canada and here in Texas they don't always include the same types of traditions as my family in Canada has, so it is a chance for me to hang on to some of the things that I miss about home.

Needless to say my parents and brother and sister will not be celebrating with us ... besides they already had Thanksgiving ... but they are all coming down for Christmas which I am really excited about because I haven't seen them since May.

[earcher]

Hi Electra, I was just wondering if you have any super special GF recipe I can borrow off of you for a special holiday treat. My MIL is Celiac's and I cook GF for her all the time, our thanksgiving will be gluten free as well! I thought something new would be exciting for her.

Thanks, Erika

[Ahappymel]

Originally Posted by Shenandoah

Where *are* you? And how come it isn't closer to me? We could have a nice potluck and my daughter can meet other vegans. She asked the other day if we are the only vegans in the entire world.

We are in Southern California...where are you?

[blissfish]

Here's our deal:

• We don't have any family in town, and with all the drama going down in DH's family, decided not to make the drive to WA for front-row-seats at this year's annual family spectacle.
• Most of our friends are going somewhere else this year.
• I'm not a big meat eater and REALLY don't like cooking whole birds, but DH has a lot of emotional ties to re-creating a semblance of traditionalism when it comes to food and holidays.

So...we decided to go to a big, goofball German restaurant that has yodelers and makes a big, silly, yummy Thanksgiving feast.

It might be lame, but I work full time and cook our meals every day. I'm thinking that my right as a gestating little cranky pants includes not having to cook some big meal I don't want to eat for just the three of us.

So...yodeling saurkraut, here we come! Whee!

[skueppers]

We'll be driving a couple of hours to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's parents, and then driving another couple of hours to spend the weekend with my parents. It's our usual "holiday triangle," which we won't be doing for Christmas this year since my due date is only 2 weeks later. I think his parents are going to come visit us for Christmas this year, since all of their other kids are planning to be elsewhere.

I actually really enjoy spending holidays with my in-laws; they're great people.