Something happens to me right about this time every year--I begin gearing up mentally and emotionally for the craziness that begins the week of Thanksgiving and ends January 2nd when reality pokes itself back into place.
I love the holidays/I hate the holidays. I hate the stress/I love the traditions.
This year will be the first in 8 years that I have not cooked dinner on Thanksgiving. We are going to my sister-in-laws and I'm happy/sad. I am excited to see my sister and the kids--and wow, not cook. But...I have a feeling I'll still cook a traditional meal because I NEED leftovers. So I'm thinking that there really won't be any less work involved this year. More if you factor a 3 hour drive with 4 teens and *gulp* two dogs.
What? You think I'd make the dogs stay home alone on a holiday? If the kids have to come, then you can be sure I'm bringing the only member of the family that listens to me.
And we are bringing one more thing. One tradition I won't give up. Every year, we watch "Christmas Vacation" on Thanksgiving to put us in the holiday mood. Usually, it happens after the kitchen is clean and we are all slumped over mid-way into our turkey coma. This year will be no different.
So, besides the traditional meal, what Thanksgiving traditions do you look forward to? Do you watch the Macy's parade? Have a family football game? Hide the good dessert from the kids?
I'm like you - I want leftovers!
ReplyDeleteOur traditions? Nothing written in stone, but we do watch football, eat pumpkin pie for breakfast the next day and sometimes my mom and I do the shopping thing. Mostly, we eat. lol
Since I got married, my Thanksgivings have been co-opted by the in-laws. Entirely. They have iron-clad, set-in-stone rights to Thanksgiving, somehow, and from here on out, we'll be with them in November. Which would be fine, except it's never at someone's house! There are too many of us, so we all meet at a hotel. I miss cooking Thanksgiving dinner so much, this year I'm thinking about doing it anyway, a week before or a week after.
ReplyDeleteKristen--the shopping thing freaks me out. No way.
ReplyDeleteEloisa--make sure you buy your turkey before they go off sale!
Massive turkey intake, followed by a slip into a slow coma. ROFL. I love it!!
ReplyDeleteI love to cook Tgiving dinner. Last year, we were painting the new house, so my parents brought us tgiving. But this year, I'm cooking again, and I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteAll throughout college, Thanksgiving was too short of a break to actually go to my parents' home (9 hour drive and I was too broke to spring for the airline tickets), so I started going to my grandmother's home in SC since it was just a 3-hr drive. (Except for the semester I spent in Paris...it was way to expensive to fly home so a bunch of us Americans all got together and did our own quasi-Thanksgiving, complete with fajitas and margaritas...hey, there was a Tex-Mex place down the street...but my roommate and I did bake an apple pie.)
ReplyDeleteThen in law school, again, too short of a break to go back home (5-hr flight), so I went to my other grandmother's home in Sun City, AZ (45-minute drive).
Granted, these Thanksgivings were still with family, but not with my immediate family (ie, parents and brother).
It's only been in the past few years that I've done Thanksgiving with my parents again, but never with my brother (he's generally living on the opposite side of the country from where I am...when I was on the West Coast, he was on the East Coast, and vice versa).
This year my parents are flying out to California for Thanksgiving, to visit my brother and meet their soon-to-be-daughter-in-law. I really wanted to go, especially since Mr. Brice's sister and our adorable niece and nephew live only 20 minutes from my brother and his fiancee. Would have been perfect, right?
Well, unfortunately, Mr. Brice's job sucks. So he can't take the time off. And I thought it would be insensitive if I went without him.
So we're stuck here for Thanksgiving, with no family. :( But it should be fun, anyway. We're going to dinner at the parents of one of his coworkers.
Wow, I'm talkative. Guess that's what happens when you're feeling sick so you sleep in all day and have no human contact.
ReplyDeleteAwww...Hope you feel better Amanda!
ReplyDeleteWell, since I've been married, I've made the dinner every year. I LOVE that part. When Ghost Hunk was in graduate school, I invited people who had nowhere to go for the holiday, often foreign students or friends whose families lived on the other side of the country. If I can, I like to make kiszka for breakfast (a dark Polish sausage), but I can't always get it in time. Not enough Polocks in PA!
ReplyDeleteWe try to get the Christmas tree up on Sunday, but it doesn't always happen.
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET is our movie pick. We save CHRISTMAS VACATION and A CHRISTMAS STORY for a double feature a little closer to Christmas. Complete with party food and hard liquor. (Well, the kids get punch!)