Gratitude day

[owlmoose]

I hope everyone who celebrates the holiday had a lovely Thanksgiving, and that everyone else enjoyed their Thursday off.

Ours was fairly typical -- drove up to Santa Rosa for dinner at my grandma's. My uncle roasted the turkey, and it came out great. Potatoes, veggies, gravy, rolls, pumpkin bread and two kinds of pie for dessert. Tasty all around. The family has had a pretty good year, as these things go, so it's nice to get together for a low-stress celebration. It's especially good to be able to gather at Grandma's; for awhile it looked like the inevitable downward slide of aging was going to take her, but not only has she stabilized, it seems that her health has actually improved over the last couple of years. It looks like family gatherings will have to be at her place from here on out, though, because traveling is hard on her, so if it's not in her home, she can't be there. Fortunately Santa Rosa isn't too far -- maybe an hour and a half to two hours, depending on traffic.

I am a bit jealous of everyone who got to cook their own Thanksgiving meal, though. T and I talked about that on the way up: that we haven't ever pulled together a big holiday meal of our own, and it doesn't look like we'll have an opportunity in the foreseeable future (see above re. Grandma and inability to make it down here -- she couldn't even get to my wedding). For the most part, I love Thanksgiving food, and I'd love to plan the menu to my own tastes and then undertake the feat of making it all work. Of course, the potluck route is certainly less work, and it's nice that I didn't have to shop during yesterday's rush or spend any time yesterday or this morning cooking (we're typically responsible for bringing beverages to our family holiday meals). There are definitely advantages. But I still want to give the whole shebang a try sometime.

Comments

[lassarina]

Would your family ever consider letting you bring foods and cook? I know my mom and aunt share the cooking duties at our place.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they would consider it. Cooking in a strange kitchen is always tricky, though -- not knowing where all the implements and ingredients are, or the quirks of the stove and the oven; having to trust that they'll have the stuff you'll need versus bringing all our own. Still, it's a good idea. Maybe I'll broach the idea of bringing and cooking a turkey some year.

[concertinette.livejournal.com]

Dirk's brother and sister-in-law have an annual ThanksMas party with all their friends on some Saturday night in December - she gets to do up the whole turkey (bought at the after-Thanksgiving grocery store sale) and make a huge fuss, which is great. I could see that it wouldn't have the emotional impact of cooking for your family, but it could be a great practice run. (and fun, too)

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

That's a really appealing thought, actually. A few years back, some friends had a second Thanksgiving dinner on the day after, and we all came early to help with the cooking. It was a lot of fun, too. Not going to get my act together to do something like this in December this year, but maybe January...

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I'm late, because I'm just now browsing the F-List, but I thought I'd comment -- Jeff and I have had a separate "Thanksgiving" dinner on a different weekend for two years in a row now. Basically we just like the food and the stuffing, and we invite anyone who can make it to our house. It works out pretty nicely (especially for us, because we get complete control over the menu PLUS leftovers!).