Thanksgiving week is the heaviest travel week of the year here in the lower forty-eight. Nearly everyone goes somewhere even if it's just down the block. And most people take something with them to add to Thanksgiving dinner at the place where they are going.
Where are you going? And what are you taking?
Bonus question: What was the worst thing that happened at a Thanksgiving dinner you attended?
23 comments:
No crazy stories that I can think of, other than driving through Illinois blizzards to get to the meal.
I'll be eating turkey dinner at least twice on Thanksgiving. Once in Jersey with the Filipinos, the second time with the family in Upstate, and the third time with the Dawgz.
Hey, why not put my blog on your blogroll? I'm not any crazier than Crack!
Whoops! I noticed the internal contradictions! Eating, definitely, twice, but potentially three times.
The Dawgz will be a dessert stop. I'm bringing Sam's Club pies to each event. The Karaoke Queen will be cooking something, but I don't know what.
These sort of internal contradictions never occur in my blog, and, as I said, my blog is nowhere near as stark raving mad as Crack's!
Guaranteed!
I'm driving to northern Wisconsin where a hazardous weather warning has been issued of lake effect snow coming off of Lake Superior. Thanksgiving and a few extra days will be spent in a cabin with no television, but with a fireplace. Good trade.
Not sure what food I'm taking - probably just some fruit and vegetables. Thanksgiving dinner will be enjoyed in a local restaurant whose immigrant owner serves free Thanksgiving dinner to anyone who shows up, until his supplies are exhausted. He's a very thankful guy.
The worst Thanksgiving dinner I was at involved non-stop arguing between two families. The argument began when someone called someone else's wife 'lard ass'. I left early.
Should also make a stop at Family of Woodstock's annual Thanksgiving dinner, but don't know if I'll have time.
That dinner is a charity affair for the town's down and outers. One of the few times a year when the prosperous and sedate folks commingled with the street people.
Family of Woodstock is a good charity, primarily concerned with helping the needy, although its politics inevitably bleed into the town's progressive bullshit.
The Packers play on Thanksgiving Day. If you eat, you can't drink as much beer.
AllenS said...
The Packers play on Thanksgiving Day. If you eat, you can't drink as much beer.
I'm going to the Ravens - Steelers game. But the eat-drink limitation won't be a factor since my MIL is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. She seems to think if there's any juice left in the meat it isn't done.
Some of us are going down to Georgia to have dinner with our parents.
We are taking some of their grandkids with us.
BTW, I don't know if I will be able to post from down there.
Hopefully my phone will still work and I'll be able to comment.
We're driving to the Twin Cities. Our daughter was married last year and this is her first Thanksgiving. We're bringing pistachios, a Spinelli family traditional snack watching football.
The worst Thanksgiving was @ a college girlfriend's house in Pa. I had long hair and they were straight laced. Her brother played football @ Cornell and I was a fucking hippie she brought home. I had no idea I was walking into a buzz saw.
I go to Kroger, the same as every day.
A gallon of water, some yogurt and anything else that's run out are purchased, put on the bike and pedalled home.
The well water is fine but makes coffee taste weird.
The storm is going to hit here in upstate New York late tonight and leave, if the forecast is to be believed, twelve inches of snow by Wednesday night. So the question is, which is worse, advising your guests to beat the storm by coming today and having them over for Tuesday night through all day Thursday? or hoping they'll arrive by early to mid-afternoon on Thursday and ending up waiting till 9 PM to start the meal? What a pickle!
I it noticed a few years ago that it was not possible to have a family Thanksgiving dinner without someone mentioning poop. It usually took the form of mentioning what the dog needed to do, or had done. Or maybe something a baby had just done.
Anyhow. It became a game at the table to wait for the first accidental mention of poop, followed by everyone else at the table bursting into laughter.
Watch for it at your dinner Thursday.
Going nowhere. Staying home and cooking a standing rib roast and other side dishes. Pumpkin pie, of course. We have a very large pile of limbs and other tree trimmings. We plan to start a big fire, sit outside and have some cocktails while dinner cooks. The weather has been dry, clear and somewhat unseasonably warm for our area. Highs in the day high 50's, might even hit 60 degrees and only in the mid 20's at night.
The worst Thanksgiving was at a family gathering with my liberal family and extremely liberal sister-in-law. At the height of George Bush hatred syndrome. They kept going on and on and FUCKING on about how stupid Boooshitler was and how stupid Repblicans are and on and on and on. We politely tried to change the subject at first and then strongly asked that we discuss something else since we can all agree to disagree and that we didn't drive all this way to get into political arguments. Let's talk about something else m'kay? That worked for a while but they kept going back to their libtard talking points. They just couldn't keep from picking the scab. I finally told them all, including my father to fuck off if that was how they felt about us. If they couldn't stop insulting and demeaning us and refused to conduct decent conversation, we would have to leave....goodbye and don't ask us back until you can have some control over your conversations and accept that there might be OTHER people with different views than you. Got up and left in the middle of dinner and drove the 600 miles home that night.
We did get an apology after a few weeks and today's family meetings are much better. When they or we start drifting into argumentative political territory everyone stops, takes a deep breath and ....how about that weather. Aren't the grandkids cute and soooo smart. How was your vacation. What is the next cruise you guys are going to take. Remember when we went to [destination] when we were kids wasn't that fun. Your new decorations/carpet/wallpaper/furniture are really nice. Business is good....how about yours?
My worst Thanksgiving Day memory wasn't about the meal, but the after effects.
Nov. 1967 found myself and A Company 3rd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade on a fire support base that was being abandoned. Our Thanksgiving meal, consisting of everything you'd want was delivered by helicopter to us. It was good, good, good. Within a couple of days, almost all of us had dysentary. I cannot tell you how sick you become. I could go on, but it might ruin your meal.
DBQ, My most pleasant dinners are w/ friends, not family.
@ Spinelli.
Right. You can pick your friends.
:-)
Not necessarily the worst, but the oddest. The year following my brother's unexpected death, his 15 year old son brought black plastic flies to the linen, china, and crystal bedecked table where the rest of the 17 members of the extended family minus his dad sat; and he quietly proceeded to lob the flies into the food being passed. His best shot landed in the mashed potatoes where it looked quite real and life like, another made it to the butter dish. It was one of those kidding-but-not-kidding, funny-but-not-funny situations, as flies were picked out of the food, awareness dawned and the culprit was identified, with his dark attempt at humor and absurdity covering what I now believe to have been a mountain of grief.
Dinner with friends of friends this year. We'll see how it goes. We haven't traveled for Thanksgiving since we moved out of state from the rest of my family (alas for one year). Usually, we do it here and invite others without family nearby over.
The one year we DID leave, we had the worst experience known to mankind on the way home. It took us 10 hours to travel about 100 miles to get home (should have been a six hour trip total). Terrible snowstorm. I will never do it again.
Hosts didn't have the NFL network so we couldn't watch the late NFL game.
My family usually does alright with political conversations. My spouse's family has a couple of lefties, but they don't argue in bad faith --- if anything my FIL can get out of hand, and I probably agree with 90% of his beliefs. Sometimes his rhetoric will get me defensive and angry.
UPDATE: We decided to leave after the storm passes. New Departure time is approximately afternoon tomorrow.
Lem, drive safely.
No Thanksgiving this year, unfortunately. The people I'm staying with are going away and my financial harvest has not been kind enough to allow travel or turkey.
I am going to stay home and I am going to take it easy. It has been a long year.
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