Thanksgiving

For years, we always had Thanksgiving (and Christmas & Easter) dinner at my Grandparent's home. When I moved away and got married, we kept up the tradition for Christmas, but alternated on Thanksgiving and Easter to be with Nick's family.

His family loves getting together, but even for Nick, it was never the tradition that it was for my family, so we always made sure Christmas was spent with my family. Some years, we would arrive late after stopping by to see Nick's family (which was in town with us- my family was an hour drive, so already, we saw them much less), but we always got there in time for Christmas dinner.

When we moved to a small house in early fall of 2003, Nick and I decided we would like to try our hand at our own quiet Thanksgiving at home- no visiting other places, no driving, no chaos, just good food, and our own family. My Grandma was very supportive of the idea, so we did it that year. Then, for Easter the following Spring, my Grandparents were in Florida, so my Dad & Step-mom came up for dinner.

The next year we travelled again, then in 2005, Grandma died- in fact, she died 3 years ago this week, on October 27th, 2005. That year, we had originally decided to go to my Dad's house. My step-mom wanted to try dinner at her place- after all, we were always with my Grandparents (who are my mom's parents), so she'd never really done a holiday meal.

At that time, we all figured Grandpa wouldn't be doing a Thanksgiving dinner, and he was gone hunting (or to get away from us, you take your pick), so no one could ask him. Then, of course it was decided he would have it. Well, that created a dilemma. I had my aunt nagging and guilt tripping me to come over there, but had already promised my parents I would be at their place.

We decided to stop by my Grandpa's, which frankly, was going to be hard for me- my Grandmother was more of a parent to me than my dad, mom, step-mom, and assorted step-dad's all were, put together. I missed her, was still grieving her, and had no interest in being surrounded by her in their house.

My step-mom found out we were going there first, and had a bit of a tizzy (she can get unbalanced at times), and I started to feel worse over the whole debacle.

Just before Thanksgiving, Nick and I were torn on where to go, what to do, and I wasn't myself at the time, either. Finally, the answer came in the form of weather. On Thanksgiving Eve, we got slammed with an ice storm. We knew it was coming, but we weren't sure how bad it would be.

I called everyone to let them know we might not be able to make it, depending on the weather- they all understood, which was a blessing. That night, before the storm hit, I went to the store and grabbed a few basic 'cheating' things for dinner- a couple cans of corn, some biscuits, green beans, cream of mushroom soup, boxed potatoes, boxed stuffing, cranberry jelly, eggs for deviled eggs, jarred gravy, etc. All easy stuff to make that we would use again if we did leave for the holiday.

I had a turkey breast in the freezer already, so we took it out. I figured if we had to, we could make it for our own private Thanksgiving late on Sunday.

That night, the storm hit, and it was bad. When I woke up, everything- windows, cars, driveways, the ground, roofs, power lines- everything was covered in a thick coat of ice. Just to be sure, I braved the weather, and went out to the car. The doors were iced shut, so that sealed the deal for us.

We had our 2nd ever small, chaos free Thanksgiving. It was the last time my Grandpa hosted it- he has started leaving for Florida just before Thanksgiving every year. Since then, we've done our own dinner each year. It's nice, it's quiet, it's chaos free, and it's done on our own schedule.

No long drive, no snow to contend with, just peace.  It's easier on the kids as well. They get out of sorts when they are not at home- it's harder to keep them under control, and it just adds to the chaos.

This year, I had thought about inviting family- my mom's side, but I know they wouldn't come down anyway, so I think we're just going to have another quiet Thanksgiving here alone.

I have money set aside (thanks to Gather!) to shop on Black Friday- $350 in my paypal! Plus, hubby's getting a bonus check this week or next, so that'll be nice.

For Thanksgiving dinner, I'm planning to make a small Turkey- we've long since outgrown the Turkey Breast- it never left us any left overs, and that's one of the best parts of the meal! Along with the turkey, we usually make potatoes, biscuits, corn, noodles, gravy, deviled eggs, cranberry jello, cranberry jelly, green bean casserole, and more.

The kids have a 5 day weekend for Thanksgiving- they are off Wed-Fri, plus the weekend. On top of that, they have the first two Friday's in November off for Confrences.  Should be a fun month!  Right now, they can't see past tomorrow for Halloween.