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[Lovecooking]

I thought it would be fun for all the TOHBBers to share their traditions and plans for Thanksgiving including special blessings, recipes, etc.

MY THANKSGIVING THIS YEAR 2006
Thanksgiving plans start with an Evite to my family, announcing my plans and to see who can come. I always tell them if they can’t make it to dinner, still stop by if they can. My younger brother, his wife and three kids always stay for the weekend.

I have five other brothers, four in this area. Most try to come for dinner. We usually have at least 20 people.

I stuff my turkey and cook it in a paper bag. (Recipe posted at http://bakespace.com/index.php?mode=listing&act=show&lst_id=4785) We have the regular sides, mashed potatoes, gravy (which my oldest brother has to make for me), green beans with feta and pine nuts, rolls, cranberry sauce, and pies. I make pumpkin and pecan pies and decorate them with pie crust cut in leaf shapes. This year I will also make green tomato mincemeat pie that I made from my garden tomatoes.

All the adults crowd in the kitchen and try to take over. My family is all Chiefs, no Indians. It is quite chaotic. The younger kids play and the older kids (teenagers and beyond) gather in another room and make fun of us, their parents.

Some traditions other than the paper bag turkey (which my mother started when I was about eight years old), we always sauté butter and onions with the liver and eat it on saltines. Before we eat, we pray and then go around the table and talk about what we are thankful for.

[wargofive]

Hi this year I am not cooking for Thanksgiving. But I usually have some sort of favor for anyone who eats a holiday meal at our table. Last year it was felt turkeys that you could stuff after the meal. They are so cute.
This year, I hope to cook for Christmas and I am taking the little red stockings that you hang on a tree and personalizing them with everyone's name and stuffing the fork, knife, spoon and napkin inside. This way it is a table favor, place card and cutlery favor all in one.

Haven't decided what I am making yet, cause as Italians we eat a lot of food for the eve and most are not hungry on the day. So I usually do something different not the norm. This year I may be just getting out of rehab the day before, so I might order in Chinese Food.

For Thanksgiving I will probably make some pies to take to my sisters.

For New Year's Day I want to get the huge platter of sushi that costco has. We had it last year and the everyone loved it.

[monkeybusiness]

Hi Suzanne and Linda and ALL who stop by........DH, DD and myself use to go to my DM for Thanksgiving dinner,simple because my B'Day is Nov.26and we always celebrated it the same day as Thanksgiving and sometimes I was a turkey baby! There was always all my DS's and DB's and thier children ...at least 20 to 30 people! Lots and lots of food...usually all the traditional Thanksgiving Day food. After grace, we always went around the table and said what we were "Thankful " for. The one Thanksgiving that stands out in my mind , more than any other was... All the women always did all the cooking, and were ususally very worn out by the time it was all over with. So this one Thanksgiving, we (the women) told the men they had to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen and they said OK! It was a sight to behold to see all the men cleaning up such a ton of dishes.
Well, now the FAMILY has gotten so BIG, and I've gotten older and less tolerante of crowds (even if it s family) and noise...that we usually go to DH's parents and his DS and her DH join us and sometimes our DD and her family, so the most that's there is 10! I usually help cook and then we have a nice relaxing dinner. We usually go over to my parents later in the afternoon to visit and maybe eat a piece of pie.
My MOM makes the best "Cranberry Orange Mold" and my DH dearly loves it and I told mom "I need to learn how to make this ,for when you get older and can't."
All I know is I'm very lucky and thankful to have a loving husband like I do and such a sweet daughter and son-in-law who both has blessed me with 2 of the sweetest , precious boys in the world!! And the rest of my family isn't half bad either!! LOL
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY TOH FRIENDS!! Debbie
_________________
Debbie

A clean house is the sign of a broken computer.

http://bakespace.com/?monkeybusiness6

[wargofive]

Hi I see that a lot of people viewed this thread but hardly anyone replied.

I notice that a lot on the threads not just this one. More people have to reply to keep it going.

Just my humble opinion


Linda

[Motherof2Boys]

We always go to my parents home, my Mom makes the turkey and pototoes and the rest of us kids bring everything else. We usually hang out all afternoon, the guys watch football and us woman sit around the table and talk.
On Friday my Mom, sister and I usually go shopping and get some Christmas items bought. It's more tradition than getting up early and fighting the crowds.

Anyway that's our Thanksgiving tradition. Nothing special, it's just about being together with the ones you love and being thankful for everything in your life.
_________________
Jennifer
Motherof2Boys

http://bakespace.com/?motherof2boys

[anita]

Good morning I do all the cooking for Thanksgiving. All of my family comes to my mothers house. I cook all the traditional foods, I love to cook this time of the year for all the holidays,to me they are the easiest meals to cook. it is going to be hard this year, My father passed away in February of this year and my mother has alzehiemers and has really gone down since dad has been gone. My husband and I live with her now so she does't have to go in a nursing home. Well enough of that. I am so thankful for everything Godhas done for us, we all are so blessed. Everyone have a great THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

ANITA

[Guest]

"MY THANKSGIVING THIS YEAR 2007
Thanksgiving plans start with an Evite to my family, announcing my plans and to see who can come. I always tell them if they can’t make it to dinner, still stop by if they can. My younger brother, his wife and three kids always stay for the weekend. "

Are you rushing things? Please I want my years to go slower!

[Patti]

Any way! I am working on THIS years Thanksgiving! I usually have all my kids, their kids, my sister and BIL, their daughter and her boyfriend. I love cooking for all of them. We usually have the same thing every year and I get in trouble if I think of changing anything. We always have a 26 pound turkey, filling, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry fruit conserve, dried corn, broccoli, hot rolls, cranberry sauce, corn that we freeze in the summer, pumpkin pies, pecan pie, vanilla ice cream and at least one kind of cookie. Apple cider and two kinds of coffee, a red and a white wine. I was recovering from major surgery last year and didn't get to cook or have everyone over so I am really looking forward to this years Thanksgiving.

[cookiebakr]

I've read this thread several times and didn't notice the 2007! Patti your post reminded me of my family - don't ever try a new recipe at Thanksgiving or there will be trouble.

I had to think about this before posting. All of our family traditions started with my dear mother and this being our first year without her, has really changed things. My mother used to host all of our holidays and family get togethers until the late 70’s, when my eldest sister started hosting Thanksgiving. My two sisters, my mother and I would always provide the food and did most of the cleaning up too (along with my sister in-law). We always have tons of food, more than even this family of big eaters can consume. We usually have turkey, chicken and dumplings (this has always been on our holiday menu thanks to Mom) and some other type of meat, green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, candied yams and other assorted side dishes. The menu has grown and changed a bit as our family grew, but still stayed basically the same as when I was young. One year I made a sweet potato casserole and I don’t think anyone ate it because that was something that didn’t belong on the menu. Desserts – there is no scrimping on dessert! My eldest sister, who inherited the pie baking gene from my mother, makes pumpkin pie, pecan pie (which was my father’s favorite) and apple pie, we sometimes even have cookies and/or brownies. I am expected to make a cheese ball and usually a dessert – I’m the cheesecake maker in the family, so would either take that or bake a cake. We usually eat early and then graze throughout the afternoon and then just have turkey sandwiches and whatever else is leftover for dinner. Our family has gotten so big over the years that between family, in-laws, out-laws, boyfriends and girlfriends we can have up to 30 – 40 people.

The last several years, after my father passed away and my mother was placed in nursing care, we still tried to keep our family Thanksgiving in tact, but sometimes we weren’t able to do so. Last year my mother was too ill to be taken to my sister’s house so I had my Thanksgiving meal with my mother at the nursing home, and my sisters and brothers had their own separate family celebrations. Now that Mom is gone, we are no longer going to have the large family Thanksgiving that I grew up enjoying. Both of my sisters have invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner. Which do I chose without hurting the other sister’s feelings? Just between us, I would prefer to go to my eldest sisters because she is more like my Mom and continues to do a lot of the things that Mom used to do. Even though I complain about my crazy family I do love them and am thankful that I still have my brothers and sisters and their families.

Sheryle

[Lovecooking]

Well I tried to edit the 2007 to 2006 because supposedly we can edit our own entries. Anyway it didn't work. Sorry!

Suzanne