So, this year we head to my Bro-in-law’s house (25 minutes), as it is tradition in my nucular family to alternate T-Day and X-Day dinners between extended families. Not sure how much longer this tradition will go on, as my mother insisted on this compromise so her children, two of which were out of state, and grandchildren, in three other states, and a great-grandchild could all be together at least once a year during a holiday.
Anywho, on to T-Day.
My wife will be cooking a lovely, though expensive, turkey I bought from a local meat store. Regular grocery stores have 16lb or 25lb turkeys and none in the sweet spot of 20lb that I picked up. She is using a dry brine, which for me means no hauling around 35lbs of turkey+liquid.
Wife is also making cranberry sauce, dressing, and gravy. My sis-in-law-in-law insists on knowing who is bringing what to make sure nothing is missing. Should be about 30 people showing up, down from the expected 40, as one of my wife’s aunts is treating her descendants to a cruise.
Bro-in-law just refurbed their great room, and it will be about 70 outside. Perfect.
You Easterners: stay safe out there. Heard about some nasty weather.
We had to skip last year because my son got sick, so we had a small, intimate meal at home without any turkey or any other traditional food. It was wonderful. I would like to do it again, but I don’t see it happening until my grandmother passes.
I make a great turkey (apple cider brined), but I’m tired of it and will probably never make another one.
Just the wife and older daughter and me. I’ll make the turkey as usual. They’ll make everything else…most of which I won’t eat. Maksalaatikko? No thanks. Rosolli? I’ll pass on that as well. And get this—her cranberry sauce doesn’t even have those lovely ridges.
The second thing sounds decent enough to me. I like beets and root vegetables, so a salad with that sounds fine. I’ll try the liver casserole thing but probably wouldn’t care for it.
This year the family festivities will be abbreviated and I am thankful for that.
Wednesday night, going to see a sports game with in-laws. This is always nerve-wracking with my colitis, but this year I feel pretty well-controlled and think I’ll be fine. Some years have been very bad. Neither Partner nor I care about sports but family does.
Staying the night with in-laws. They are going to drink a lot and say something offensive. Hopefully it’s not very offensive. We are leaving Thursday morning before the main festivities to see my family. 4 hours of time there, then home for a great, relaxing, long weekend.
To be fair, I’m about as informational about the sports game as my partner. I leave some level of pseudonymity even though 1 or 2 people know who I am.
My side of the family is in town for Thanksgiving. We had planned events Tuesday thru Saturday, but now we are waiting for COVID testing due to a superspreading wedding weekend from the other side of the family.
I’ve got 7am meetings on both Thursday and Friday, because I didn’t want to inconvenience the non-Americans who asked for them / because I accept that as the price of the flexibility I take in scheduling my work hours in my WFH role.
Ruh roh. I went to bed with an “ngk” feeling in the back of my throat when I swallowed, and woke up with a full sore throat. Might not be doing much of anything for the holiday after all.
Hope you’re feeling better NA. As I posted in another thread, I just started my third round of antibiotics today.
Plan is to have brunch with BFs family (meeting them for the first time) then dinner with my family then football with BF and some of his friends that I haven’t yet met. One is a Seahawks fan so that will hopefully be fun since the Seahawks are playing on Thanksgiving this year.
We’ll see how I’m feeling though. I’ll be midway through the antibiotics, so hopefully pretty good based on how the first two rounds went. I’m only 1 dose in so far though, and still feeling lousy.
Update: my sister, who was hosting, decided today that she will NOT be hosting, leaving all 17 of the rest of us without plans. I’m personally ok with this outcome, and don’t plan to offer to host, but I suspect another family member will be hosting last minute.
My sister claims she woke up “not feeling great” today and will probably need to be “in bed the rest of the week.” I’m not for her hosting or even attending if she is sick, but the way she is describing it seems over the top and therefore not believable. It’s like what I would tell my parents when I was a kid and didn’t want to go to school. Eh, whatever.
