Let’s talk Turkey, shall we? Today, we’re pulling up a chair to the “Us Girls” Thanksgiving Table. And we want to know things… obviously, what are you thankful for? But we want to know the nitty gritty…. What is your ideal Thanksgiving Dinner? Are you a turkey-lover? Or would you prefer a good steak, a sweet baked ham, or maybe a turducken? Do you brine your turkey? Deep fry it? Do you stuff your turkey, or do you believe, like me, that stuffing is evil, and make dressing instead? What’s your favorite side dish? Dessert? Do you have appetizers?
Share your Thanksgiving with us. This holiday is traditionally overshadowed by the excesses of Christmas, but I really think it’s the best holiday – the whole point is to set aside the troubles of the world and focus on those things that are most important. The things that we are most thankful for, even when they drives absolutely nuts … our families and friends, and the wonders of all that we have.
Remember, be nice. Honestly, it’s Thanksgiving, no need to start a food fight. But if you do, you’ll be the one who gets to stand in the kitchen washing ALL the dishes – including that turkey roaster with all the black stuff cooked to the bottom. While the rest of us gather in the family room, drinking wine, eating pie, and getting caught up in a rockin’ game of Quelf.
Us Girls..Our Views 
My Thanksgiving favorites? Honestly, I don’t care that much about turkey. I can take it or leave it. But I’d say the same about any meat dish. My dad likes turkey for Thanksgiving. Last year we skipped it in favor of something that doesn’t take all day to cook, but he was not happy. So this year they are back to turkey (with stuffing), but hopefully he won’t buy the biggest bird in the county like he usually does.
My sister does most of the side dishes for Thanksgiving. She generally does the traditional, heart-attack-on-a-plate varieties. Buttery mashed yams, mashed potaties and giblet gravy, creamed peas & carrots, baked cauliflower & broccoli au gratin, cranberry sauce. Sometimes some inlaw or outlaw brings a green bean casserole.
As for dessert – my dad bakes pumkin pie using his mom’s ancient recipe. These are the best pumpkin pies ever. We’ve already told him that the first year he stops making the pie is the year he goes into the “home.” (I know, we’re all going to Hell.)
My job is to bring the wine and clean up afterwards.
As for family traditions – after the turkey is done (usually ridiculously late), we all gather around the table and my dad says a prayer, which has mercifully gotten shorter as we’ve gotten older. Usually my mom tries to start eating before the prayer, and gets chided, etc. During the meal we blab, usually ridiculing politicians and political correctness and such. (Something we can all agree on.) At some point in the meal, someone will make it a point to use the word “poignant,” a family tradition that started when my dad had an English teacher who was fond of that word (and had a crush on my dad). Stuff like that. My mom will comment on whether the bird is too salty or not salty enough, etc. Eventually someone’s kids will start being a pain in the butt and the adults will start feeling sleepy and everyone will go their own way. If my brothers are around, or if my sister breaks out a puzzle, chatting will go on deep into the night. (I’m getting exhausted just thinking about it!).
Man, I just did some shopping at Amazon.com and shot my wad.
Bring on the holidays!
yea I was shopping there yesterday too. I’m done getting gifts for Hunter. It really stinks that his b-day is after Christmas. Cause you have to decide what to get for Christmas and save for the b-day. You click on all the stuff on the website and add it to your cart and when your finally done shopping and you look at the price in the shopping cart and go WHAAAAAA??!!! Well that’s what I did anyways.
Yeah, my kid’s birthday is the same day as your kid’s. I’m also buying for my niece’s birthday which is in early December. So you can see how fast it adds up!
The girls have been begging for a certain big-ticket item and I bought one (they had better plan on sharing). Here’s hoping it goes over well, because they ain’t getting much else!
You should wait till after Christmas to buy his birthday stuff. You may get it on sale. Or they might not have it 😦 Yes, my birthday sucks too. I hate having it when I do. I wish it was in the summer so I could have a “lake” party.
I can’t remember your exact birthday, but I have to say mine is kind of a dud, being one month into the school year. The only nice thing about it is that it’s in my favorite month, October.
My kid’s birthday this year will be on a Caribbean cruise ship, so I’m pretty sure she won’t be complaining too much about that. I think early January will generally be a time when we’ll take vacations, mainly because it’s harder to take off any other time of the year. As for my other kid, her birthday is boring like mine. But at least the weather is usually OK, so we can do some kind of weekend thing. (We don’t do birthday “parties.”)
Mine is Dec 27. We were always traveling all day every year. I really can’t stand it mostly because I did get shortchanged. I ALWAYS got combined gifts and my brother would get something similar for his birthday that’s in March. My brother felt bad about it too. I know as an adult that money is tight but my presents we wrapped in Christmas paper and I never got cards. I got those tags. It was just nothing special just for me. Which like I say, I understand but since being an adult, Dec 26 and Christmas is OUT of my house and my birthday is separate.
I’ve gotta say, I never minded having my birthday after Christmas. I’m the 28th. But then, my parents DID make an effort to separate the days. I share a b’day with my uncle, who we always got together with on Christmas (the Pennsylvania crowd that we’d also visit on Thanksgiving), so on Christmas Night, after dinner, they’d bring out a cake that was decorated half and half – all serious and flowery for him, and silly and girly for me. And then there was always a ‘family party’ and my friend party. I *rarely* got a “combination” present, unless it was a big deal.
I agree, though… I would have been miserable if they hadn’t separated those days for me. Sometimes adults forget to look at things from a kid’s point of view. Especially with things like a birthday so close to a holiday, the adults think “let’s just get it over with, ’cause this whole season is just a big chore.” They forget that, even though it’s a chore for them, it’s all magic for the kids. And it can be even more magical for the ones who have a birthday close to it.
I’m excited for Thanksgiving! I’ll be making coleslaw, green bean casserole, & the asparagus casserole. Both from the blog. Haven’t tried the green bean one yet, but I’m sure its better than the classic. My mom’s making both turkey & ham. Don’t know why really, since there’s only gonna be 7 of us there! I think she said we may put up her Christmas tree during the afternoon. She got a new tree last yr and is pretty excited about it.
Thanksgiving night is coming up fast neighbors!!! Ya’ll got your lights ready? lol I still need to hang more up. I want to hang some on the fence in our yard. My mom gave me her old ones, that aren’t LED. So I will use what I can. Jason’s not too happy, but it’s so darn pretty!!!
Well everyone have a good Thanksgiving! Eat lots….enjoy yourself & your families.
Now you’ve got me all excited to see the Christms lights! I don’t put any up myself, but it’s great for the girls to see the lights when it’s dark so much of the time.
Paul and Toby did two more tree’s yesterday. The oak in the backyard. I’m sure you guys won’t see that one but they also used 6! 6 strands in the apple tree in the side front yard that you will see. That one looks so nice. 6 strings!! Toby said “that tree’s a lot bigger than it looks.” I’d like a few more strands but he’s not sure how much higher he can go without getting the truck out there and that scares me. I can’t wait till Thurs night at dusk. I wonder if Meerer Coop will have an outage???? Power surge for sure.
yea I’m sure Meeker Co op loves us this time of the year! I would love to get new LED netting lights for the deck. But when you have a 12X30 deck plus stairs, that would be very spendy! I hope they all work, we haven’t really plugged them all in…..
Okay. I’ll be the first fuddy duddy. I can’t stand Thanksgiving. To me it’s nothing but work and then I have to turn it around and do it all over again in a few “short” weeks. The only thing I love about it is having both kids here with all 3 chicklets. We have a good day and we eat like pigs but Thanksgiving in itself, I’ve never been fond of. One side of my family was in Canada, where it’s not Thanksgiving now and the other half in Buffalo, NY so we were always alone and never did much for this holiday. It just has bad memories for me. Now that my kids are grown and have kids, I’m starting to like it more and this year my cousins son Joseph is coming and I’ll get to meet his wife. I’m really looking forward to it this year. I think Nikki and I will have to quit talking because each time we do we add “one more thing” to the menu!!! LOL!!
None of us love turkey that much. We all eat it and we do always have one because after all, it is Thanksgiving. This year we’re also having a ham. We love both and it’s a long weekend and the leftovers can go home with others or be eaten as leftovers. I really want the ham bone so I can make soup one day next week. Mashed potatoes, squash, asparagus casserole, corn, cranberries, dressing, meatballs, chicken wings, shrimp bacon dip, BLT dip, bbq chicken dip, little smokies with brown sugar, meat/cheese and PIES!!!!!! This is a combined group effort.
Today I’m cleaning the living room and putting up lights. Tomorrow morning I’m volunteering in Christopher’s classroom. We’re making a Thanksgiving Feast. He’s very excited and so am I. I’m happy he wants me to go because boys are different than girls and they sometimes don’t like this kind of thing but I’m going to enjoy it because it won’t last. My cleaning lady also comes tomorrow morning. How lucky could I be that she comes the week of a holiday like this??
Boy, that got long winded. Vicki dropped over to pick something up and I went missing a few times and each time I came back I added more. Okay, I’m off to make potatoes. Have a good Monday all.
And a Pumpkin Spice cake! 🙂 Walmart doens’t carry Festal pumpkin so I’ll pick some up at Cub when I take Fana tomorrow. Libby’s does NOT work! Found that out the hard way. We’re going to have more food than any of us will know what to do with!
I could take or leave Thanksgiving. It’s not that big of a deal to me, at all. I’m always thankful for what I have, and who is in my life. I don’t need a day for that, but it’s nice to get together with family. That’s what Thanksgiving is about, to me.
I prefer dressing, and not sticking it in the bird. I LOVE homemade cranberry sauce, so I make that. I can’t stand the canned stuff.
So do you folks all make your Thanksgiving table pretty and stuff like that? My parents have this “special” set of dishes called Friendly Village, which they use every year. Other than that, there is no room on the table for pretties. I’m looking at Laura’s photo and I’m thinking, do real people do all that every year?
No, our table doesn’t look like that but I’d sure like it if it did. We used to eat that way with all the pretty stuff on the table and everything matching. Our kitchen is so dinky that only a handful can fit and eat in our kitchen. But I did start using real plates a year or so ago. I figured someone was going to end up with my “good” dishes one day and whoever ends up with them, I want there to be memories associated with them.
My mother in law had the best dining room in the world. She could have easily seated 30 people in it and many times there were that many of us. I really do like sitting down together in the same room but it just doesn’t work at at that minute, it seems unimportant. We have a couple tables and eating places set up though so it’s okay.
I’m in major procrastination mode today. When I get this way, I almost wish someone would take me out back and shoot me.
Here’s to getting something done before daycare pickup!
I love all the holidays b/c I loved how we all got together for a big noon meal and then played games all afternoon. Those are some of my favorite memories and it was hard to grow up and everyone starts going their separate ways and things change. I’ve learned that I don’t handle change as well as I thought I did in the last few days.
We are making the squash, asparagus thingy, cocktail weinies and I feel like there’s something else! Our squash turned out soooooo good this year it’s unbelievable! It’s so sweet and doesn’t need any brown sugar. YUM!
Sorry I was absent yesterday… I’m in Chicago, so it’s hit-and-miss if i can get online, ’cause we’re off doing things.
Thanksgiving has gotten different as I’ve gotten older. When I was a kid, we always went to my mom’s sister’s house, in Pennsylvania. I absolutely loved it. The ride was long, so I got to read and read and read, and then I got to spend my whole weekend with my cousins, going bowling, going hiking, and best of all, going shopping on Black Friday. My cousin, Ginny, is a serious shopper, so Black Friday (back when it was reasonable, the stores opened at 6 AM, instead of midnight on T-day), was fun. We’d make lists and see how cheap we could get stuff for.
Now, we spend it in Chicago, and my brother (Lurker Mike) and his wife host. Our menu this year is Turkey (brined), dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls. My niece is bringing appetizers, and she’s always creative, so I’m sure those will be good. My mom is bringing pies – mince, pecan, some sort of fruit (she hadn’t decided yet when I talked to her), and Josh is in charge of the pumpkin pie. We’re baking the pumpkins down today (Tuesday).
Speaking of Black Friday – do you all go shopping that day? Do you start at midnight or when?
With online shopping and no free time, I have little desire to go shopping at all, much less at a time when the place is full of nutsos who think shopping is a competition. But even if I really liked going shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, I can’t imagine wanting to do it at midnight. After stuffing myself with turkey and all the fixings and a few sips of wine, it’s all I can do to gather the energy to clear up the dinner mess (or an installment of it) and drag my drugged butt up to bed. Then again, we have our dinner on the late side. I guess if Thanksgiving dinner was much earlier in the day, people could sleep it off by midnight. But still – when you can sleep, why torture yourself?