And how is your Thanksgiving going to be?

I have 19 people coming for dinner and live in a 14X60 mobile home. The living room furniture has been moved into the spare bedroom and two folding tables have been set up in the living room running into the kitchen. Three cheesecakes (one regular, one chocolate and one pumpkin) are done. Apple Brown Betty, done. Mashed potatoes to feed an army, done and in the fridge, ditto on the squash. Corn casserole done and in the fridge. Penuche and fudge, done. 30 pound bird soaking in cooler in tub. Gas grill at the ready for reheating potatoes, squash, corn, apple brown betty.

Things left to do today...

Go to Kmart get another set of matching dishes, 3 more folding chairs.
Go to Wal-Mart for hot cocktail sauce for Dad.
Pick up pastry order from Bakery (2dozen cannoli, 12 chocolate covered, 12 regular, 6 lobster tails)
Cook 6 pounds of shrimp.
Bake Pumpkin Gooey Cake.
Make and bake cheesy bread sticks.
Fry stuff for and then make stuffing.
Stuff 2 bunches of celery with various cream cheeses.
Sweep and mop.
Clean kitty pan.
Vacuum house.
Set table.

Tomorrow...

Up at 6am, take dog out, take shower.
Stuff bird, and roast.
Reheat all this friggin' food.
Bake dinner rolls.
Keep cats away from Aunt Helen.
Keep dog away from Cousin Eddie.
Keep Mom the hell out of my kitchen.
Keep Dad from yelling at Mom to stay the hell out of my kitchen and "just let the boy do his thing dammit".
Serve dinner.
Serve dessert.
Make to go plates.
Kick everyone out except for best friend Mike.
Do dishes for two hours, after making sure that everyone understands I need no help in cleaning up or doing dishes (see get the hell out of my kitchen).
Take another shower.
Head off to casino with Mike for a few hours.

Does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm not. Busy yes, but I am truly thankful that a) I have family and friends that I love and am able to spend this day with. b) That I am able to afford to do this becasue I ave a decent job that I love. c) I have the ability to do all this cooking and running and grunt work.

So I'm signing off for a few... have lots to do... I hope everyone here has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Brightest Blessings!

Good luck to you!

For me, I'll be going to my parents. I'm an only child, and it's just the three of us. Still, we'll have a traditional turkey dinner.

Brightest Blessings to you too! :hi:

My Republican in-laws are coming over for turkey at 2:00. We hope to get them fed and on their way as quickly as possible...

I will be drinking and praying they don't start with me. DU has allowed me finely hone my sarcasm - and I fear it might get me punched out.

Besides that, my father-in-law likes his turkeys to be very dry - like eating a shoe. It's the same with any kind of roast at their house. I'm not sure I can handle the bad food and bad blood at the same time.

It's usually less-cooked than the breast meat.

Ick. I hate dry turkey

We can compare notes. :-)

Actually, there should be a good number of threads about turkey day and family arguments over the next few days - could be some good humor.

My husband, daughter and I are going to my friends house, this has become a tradition since we met 4 years ago. Her Dad and brother and sister in law will be there along with her mother and father in law. She makes the turkey and stuffing and i make a spiral ham and mashed potaoes. I always make a cheesecake, will be doing that today along with my grandmothers cheesespread, wouldn't be a holiday without it.

I wanna' come!!! And after 28 Thanksgiving dinners in a row, you don't have to ask me once to stay out of your kitchen. :)

Have a great day!

I'll be alone.

Living with my mom and her husband, and he's an asshole, so I think I'll spend the day out in nature, will take my digital camera along, and take some pics. Better than spending it in this house.

have a great Thanksgiving DemWitch

feeding over 400 at the restaurant at my place of employment.

But surrounded by a ton of like-minded Dems. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her other fundie cousin and her asshole, know-it-all husband and 5 kids don't show up.

You're going to need them.

I need to make pie dough, two pies and mashed potatoes.

Blessings to you to!

Our old Corolla got wiped out in a two-car wreck a month and two days ago - now we're in a Camry with low miles, leather seats, etc. My wife absolutely loves it. Road trip, here we come! (Batten down the hatches, Austinites - you're on our list...)

Otherwise, a quiet, happy Thanksgiving with my Republican family who are at least proud of me getting involved in the process as much as I have. They know me well enough to know I wouldn't support any candidate without a damn good reason for doing so.

First of all, I normally work that day. But since my boss is doing "improvisational scheduling," I wound up with the day off.

I have a friend who has medical problems who was going to drive 200 miles that day to have dinner with her relatives (who she doesn't really get along with). Even though I would be getting off work at 5 AM, I planned to get four hours of sleep to drive her up, so she wouldn't be physically beat by the time she got there.

However, she decided to stay in town and avoid the relatives, and so we're going to a nice buffet at a local hotel. And perhaps a movie afterwards. ("The Incredibles" is a very nice, optimistic film - made by Pixar, and only incidentally with the Disney name on it - and I recommend it to anyone suffering election blues. We are all Supers - even though the world currently disdains us, we need to recognize what we are, so we can save the world.)

I would only add one other thing. If I had a normal job, which normally had days off, I'd probably be volunteering with some local group to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the poor, or Veteran's groups, or some other organization. A night shift worker in broadcasting doesn't have holidays, to speak of - only days you work with a little extra money. But it always makes me feel good to directly help people in trouble. Sadly, I can only do it with a few bucks in the Salvation Army kettle.

A lot of you guys are now feeling the need to get back in contact with the common person, after years of being disconnected? Helping disadvantaged people during the holidays is a good way to start - and a cure for the Republican greed and elitism that brings on holiday depression.

will converge on my brother's restaurant in Westport, MA for our annual Thanksgiving feast. He usually prepares

3 - 25 pound turkets
2 - 10 pound hams
two gallons of turnips and carrots
an immesurable amount of stuffing
Cranberry Chutney
at least a couple of gallons of turkey rice soup
a giant salad
25 pounds of mashed potatoes
10 pounds of mashed Macomber turnips

He also makes fresh bread and rolls, pastries, and chocolate chip cookies half the size of volkswagen hubcaps, at least a dozen pies of various fillings, apple, peach, mincemeat, pumpkin...

Cases of local wine are opened, and kegs of local beer are tapped.

Chef Aaron


Last year's spread

That looks delicious! :hi:

.... keeping my in-laws from trying to get everything done for us. Tony's dad is a chef, and his mother just LOVES cooking for family gatherings. Tony is going to ask his Dad to polish the good silver (should keep him busy) and he's going to ask his mom to do some of the 'prep' type stuff, like chopping celery and onions. We hope that will keep them busy enough so that he and I can actually COOK the meal.

;)

(alabama) This should be interesting...

in law. It's going to be Great!!! And then we will get up the next morning at 6 AM to go get Gramdma in Wisconsin and bring her to Michigan for awhile. She's losing it again. :(