Urk, I am so full. We had dinner at my parents’ house. They provided turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, french-cut beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, drinks, cherry pie, ice cream, and cookies. We provided seven people and a Jell-O salad.
Does this seem FAIR? Does this seem RIGHT? We breeze in with our bowl of Jell-O, leap on the feast like poorly-trained puppies, and then breeze off to meet the bedtime deadline while my parents hobble into the kitchen to manage the mountains of dishes and molehills of leftovers, dry-swallowing Excedrin and wondering if four weeks is enough time to prepare for another holiday dinner with us.
Next year maybe we should try a lunchtime Thanksgiving rather than a suppertime Thanksgiving. After we eat, Paul could take the kids outside to run off some of that, um, youthful energy, while I help in the kitchen by nibbling up the leftovers so they don’t have to be put away. Or maybe we should have Thanksgiving dinner after the kids are in bed. Or after they’ve left home.
On both sides of our family, neither mother will LET me provide much food (and I’m a decent cook, I promise!) I’ll probably be 60 before I’m required to cook a turkey, and will have no idea what to do.
We have Thanksgiving for lunch, and it does help to have the kids play outside afterward.
My contribution to Thanksgiving was your pumpkin cheesecake. It was a huge hit.
I’ve never had any Thanksgiving that wasn’t a lunch buffet. I wouldn’t know what to do if I actually had to eat a meal other than The Big One on Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving! Part of the fun of cooking all that food is gorging yourself for days afterwards. That’s why I always bring dessert- I will have all the leftovers thankyewverymuch (my hips thank you too). And what is up with kids having energy even after they eat a ton? Are they immune to tryptophan?
Remember that THEY invited YOU. My guess is that they remember all of the work that you’re doing. Lunchtime could be more manageable, although I like dinner because it gives me all day to cook–and rest.
That sounds like my mom hosting her 21 person dinner tonight… except that she wouldn’t have it any other way. I do wish it were earlier in the day, but then it would interfere with naptime. I just can’t win :)
Happy Thanksgiving!
haha! I’m sure your parents don’t mind. Maybe a lunch would be a good idea though.
We’ve always done lunch in our family, and it’s nice to lull around afterwards, while the kids nap, and just watch Christmas movies or football and basically nurse our swollen bellies. Then we nibble on the leftover cheese, crackers, veggie tray, and cookies for dinner. Perfect.
Also, I always feel just like you anytime we eat a big holiday meal at a relative’s house. “Hey! Here’s a bag of chips and a store bought cake- mind if we scarf down platefuls of your lovingly handmade stuffing and cranberry sauce while our kids fling sweet potato souffle all over your mother’s lace tablecloth?”
We have a big Thanksgiving at the grandparent’s house – a midday affair for plenty of steam-running-off, plus with enough time to get a little hungry and fill up a second plate. Leftovers already!
Growing up we had a lunch and a dinner, one at my mom’s parents’ house and one at my dad’s parents’ house. Can you imagine? With upwards of 20 people at each place (there were 44 at my dad’s parents’ this year, but we weren’t there).
Anyway, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. Ate at 1:30 and it was BRILLIANT. The baby could nap. We ate dinner, waited a couple of hours, then ate dessert. Then sat around and played games and I got out popcorn and pretzels to much on. And the kids weren’t up too late. Eating on the late end of lunch time also meant not having to get up too ridiculously early to deal with the turkey. I highly recommend it!
HA HA HAAAAA!