posted
This is the first time in my whole life that I won't be having Thanksgiving with my mom. It hasn't hit me yet, but I know I'm going to be one sad sack of Sara that Thursday. I was always resentful that I was the only child forced to help cook ( I have five brothers), but now I don't know what I'll do since we won't be making a million pies together. Someone else will have to go dump an extra bag of marshmallows into the sweet potatoes this year.
She's back in VA and I'm still in CA. I am visiting for a long time over the Christmas break, so I couldn't afford to come for both Holidays. I am trying to think up a new way to celebrate Thanksgiving since I will be away from all my family.
What are some new holiday traditions you've created; on your own or as a family?
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Move to Australia - we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here!
On a less glib note, I sympathise - this year is the second ever I won't be spending Christmas with my family (the first I was in Prague). Jus and I are moving back to Sydney shortly and have our wedding in January, so we just can't afford another interstate trip.
Posts: 2245 | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'll be in DC on my own for Christmas. I'm spending it with a friend, but still.
It's not the first one spent away from family. Technically, there isn't a family dinner - it's the "in-law" year for my dad and stepmother and so they are traveling somewhere. Last time they went to Disneyland.
For traditions...I try to call family, and that helps. Otherwise...I don't know - I haven't come up with a good solution. My current plan is to treat it like Guy Fawkes Day or Cinco de Mayo: good excuse for a party/food, but not a day wrapped in personal meaning for me.
Alternatively, you could volunteer somewhere serving Thanksgiving dinner. There has to be a place in LA for that.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
My friend holds a Thanksgiving dinner at her place for everyone who can't get home. We spend the day with her and a giant pile of friends and strangers. Then the weekend afterwards we head down to my mother-in-law's for her giant party with another gathering of friends, family, and strangers. Everyone brings their leftovers and we do Thanksgiving for another couple of days.
I love the food. I love how hassle free it makes everything. But as an introvert, all those people start to get to me. Fortunately, walking the dog is a great excuse to get out for a while.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I had a similar situation my first Thanksgiving out here in NC. My family was all in Seattle and I just couldn't afford the trip. I had some friends about my parents' age who invited me to their house. I accepted on the grounds that they allow me to help with all the cooking so I'd feel right at home. They happily agreed, and they ended up teaching me some great new recipes (a squash soup, in particular, that has become a family favorite). I made devilled eggs, which has been my tradition with my mom since I was a child.
I stayed the whole weekend and we shopped in their little town, sang Christmas carols around the piano, and they helped me prepare for an audition. They even took care of me like my parents would have when I came down with the flu right before I had to go home (too much excitement and not enough socks! as my grandmother would say).
So I recommend getting together with some (older) friends and staying wonderfully busy.
posted
Last year I was in England for Thanksgiving, and I felt awfully forlorn without my family, so I know how you feel. *hugs*
Actually, when I was in England, my flatmates were completely bewildered by Thanksgiving. One of the girls in the flat apparently asked one of the other girls, "Should we give Jenny a card that says 'Thanks'? Is that what they do?"
posted
This will be my second Thanksgiving alone. I was fine with it, and then I read this thread. Now I'm depressed. Thanks! Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
We were in Turkey one thanksgiving, and the only thanksgiving food we really had was pumpkin pie.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I'm trying to remember what I did my first thanksgiving "on my own". I think I may have eaten at a friend's house.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Fyfe: Last year I was in England for Thanksgiving, and I felt awfully forlorn without my family, so I know how you feel. *hugs*
Actually, when I was in England, my flatmates were completely bewildered by Thanksgiving. One of the girls in the flat apparently asked one of the other girls, "Should we give Jenny a card that says 'Thanks'? Is that what they do?"
posted
If you want a place to come for dinner in LA, that can be arranged. My family has a tradition of taking in "strays"-- people with no place to eat the holiday dinner. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I lived with roommates in the DC area for years and we hosted Thanksgiving for lots of other "strays" as kq put it. It was always a great day. Semi-potluck; we usually did the turkey and made gravy and potatoes, someone would get a spiral sliced ham, and usually had people bring whatever felt like "Thanksgiving" to them. Sometimes we went out to a movie afterwards. (some people think that's sacrilege, but I loves me my Thanksgiving movies!)
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Woooo... You don't know what a great offer that is unless you've had some pf kq's cooking. She once made me an omelette out of found objects that was wonderful. Even if she's not doing any of the cooking for her family thing, I'm sure it would be cool to visit the ketchups.
My family is all gone but for my step dad and my sister (and we're not allowed to eat food prepared at her house). Plus we do the switcheroo every year and this year is the in-law's turn. We may go to Miami, though, since there's a health crisis that means the in-laws won't be doing much Thanksgiving stuff.
It's times like these I really wish I could call my mom. I would have liked to do a Thanksgiving feast on my own just once under her supervision. She was such a gifted cook.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I love that I am going to a friend's house, and I appreciate the invitation. I think I'm going as a friend whose company is wanted.
I have to say, however, that if I were going to be pitied and called a "stray", then nothing on earth would induce me to go. By yourself for Thanksgiving != lost cast. Blech. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanksgiving is at my aunt's this year, and I have been assigned the green bean casserole (ick, but it's my uncle's favorite, so I'll just bring another veggie dish as well), but the food is indeed excellent. I did, after all, learn to cook partly from my mother and grandmother. Everyone in our family is a passable cook, and everything at Thanksgiving is made from scratch (except the stuffing.) Including the pies. We usually have at least two kinds of pies, including pumpkin, plus a cheesecake (well, in our family that means cheesecake pie, but it's delicous.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
"Stray" is a term of affection in my family. We love our strays, we don't pity them, we just love them more because they're not around the people who love them most.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
(The invitation was extended because she said she would be sad to be alone and not eating a family dinner on Thanksgiving. I thought she might prefer instead to eat with friends, and we sincerely enjoy having lots of good company on Thanksgiving, and who better for good company than Hatrackers? I thought a real Thanksgivng dinner and a group of friendly people might cut the sorrow a bit.
I hope she did not take offense at the invitation, and if she did, then I apologize.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
*hugs* I know you don't mean anything bad by it. How genuinely sweet and loving you are is one of my favorite things about you. I just thought you might like to know how it might be taken - there's definitely a whiff of noblesse oblige about the word "stray," and it might color an invitation with unintended overtones that hide the sweetness behind it.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Huh. When I left home at age 18, I stopped having Thanksgiving at home. (Well, until I had a home and family of my own.) There would usually be somebody that invited me along to Thanksgiving dinner, but I never fretted about it.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've only been away for one Thanksgiving, and the only reason I missed it was because I couldn't get any days off the week prior to the holiday. Black Friday made sure I couldn't go home on Thanksgiving day, too.
I made a few phone calls and did other stuff, to keep busy. For my meal, I made a pork roast and several other side dishes. It worked out well, providing left overs for quite a while. I decided that would be my tradition for Thanksgiving, if I ever have to be alone again.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I haven't had a Thanksgiving with family (other than my husband) in a long time. I tried making a turkey one year, but for the last five years or so, we've had lasagna, and that sort of became our traditional Thanksgiving meal.
This year, however, my parents live nearby, and my mom LOVES cooking Thanksgiving dinner, so we'll be going over there for turkey and dressing and the works.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
My first Thanksgiving away from home was spent in upstate new york with a rowdy immigrant Italian family, full of guys with names like Vincenzo who are built like pro wrestlers cross bred with mechanics. Anyone who didn't have an Italian accent had a New York accent; many had both. They got me drunk on homemade wine (which tasted like it was 60-70 proof) and wanted to play cards with me so badly that when I explained I didn't have any cash on me, one of them gave me money so I could lose it to them. The women couldn't get enough of me and kept asking about what it was like to live in Hawaii and would chatter amongst themselves in an Italian/New-York-accented English pidgin
It was the best Thanksgiving, ever.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've only not been home for one Thanksgiving and it was because my class schedule and the flight schedule made it impossible. So I drove down to Mexico to visit friends. It was a good Thanksgiving.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I know you mean well. I have to say that there is no tone of voice that would make being called a "stray" acceptable to me. What about "friends away from their family"?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Being called a stray doesn't offend me in the least. I am *very* grateful for the offer, but I have to admit that a Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by strangers terrifies me.
For a lot of my friends Thanksgiving isn't a huge deal, but it is gigantic to me and my mom. In the first week of November she starts discussing what we are going to make. The week before I start writing the List of Pies, with the expected quantity next to each. Once we made 23 pies. Seriously. She usually stays up all night cooking, and she always wakes me up and I start making pie crust in my pajamas. And I am almost always irritated about it. Ha! I don't think I've once made pie crust without bedhead.
One of my girlfriends used to have Thankgiving with us while my mom lived in NorCal, but she is now in a relationship that requires holidays with prospective in-laws. My roommate will be out of town visiting family.
I texted one of my other friends and asked if she would be interested in taking a Thanksgiving roadtrip. We could make the dinner and then pack the leftovers as a picnic and go explore. Gah, I need to get my passport, a trip to Mexico would have been excellent.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, right, I need to make sure our plans have been communicated to anyone we may have invited to our house...(but who had to check their in-laws).
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
We had kids. But, when we couldn't go to the traditional "family" Thanksgiving, we changed, had turkey for dinner on Sunday, made a big pot of chili on Wednsday pm. Then on Thursday, we took the chile to the hills, heated it on a Coleman stove, searched for the perfect Christmas tree, cut it and took it home. We would go shopping on Friday, while the tree sat in a bucket of water to "plump up". (After all, we do live in the desert) Then, on Saturday, we decorated the, now plump and fresh, tree. Your road trip sounds like it might serve the same purpose. We did try a road trip to SF one year. It was fun. But, no kid friendly restaurants were open for Thursday dinner. We ended up the only folks in the Wendys on the wharf. Take a fun picnic with you.
Posts: 1167 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
WAAAAAAAaaaah, that's true, Puffy. Help mom cook dinner! She threatened to just go get chinese food. Don't let her do it!
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by porcelain girl: WAAAAAAAaaaah, that's true, Puffy. Help mom cook dinner! She threatened to just go get chinese food. Don't let her do it!
I dunno. The Peking Duck -does- have very good Shrimp Lo Mein.
posted
I'm a big fan of the pot luck Thanksgiving. I've lived far enough away from my parents for most of my adult life to make going home for Thanksgiving impractical. I'm accustomed to spending Thanksgiving with a group of friends. I remember one year when I was a graduate student attending three dinners on Thanksgiving day.
If I'm hosting a dinner at my house I always invite friends. Although we try to invite people we don't have family close by, I've never thought of them as "strays", they are just people who are more likely to say yes. We've had as many a 20 and as few as 1 guest for Thanksgiving accept the invitation.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm a stray again this year. Last year I was taken in for the day by one of my friends and his fiancee (now wife) and we had a lovely small Thanksgiving.
This year, I'm not sure what I'll be doing. There was talk of getting together everyone who has no place to go for a big potluck, but plans have a tendency of falling by the wayside around here. I may wind up watching football and eating some smoked turkey sandwiches. Then again, that doesn't sound like a terrible day. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've always thought it a bit unfortunate that two holidays that have so much meaning for people to be so close to each other on the calender. Thanksgiving should officially be moved to May.
Posts: 722 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe it bothers me because of my family's traditions. We always had a huge Thanksgiving dinner at our house with multiple families attending because just about everyone in the ward lived far away from family. The most memorable was when they put all 50 children in the garage with just a space heater and wouldn't let us back in until the ten adults were done eating and talking. *sigh* It was just the way to spend Thanksgiving - with friends. No need to label anyone as semi-homeless.
Posts: 1753 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
