For Those Who Love Thanksgiving

[Saphire]

my older son (who is 29).. told me his favorite Thanksgiving memories are of waking up, and opening his eyes Thanksgiving morning to the aromas of a Thanksgiving feast drifting upstairs to his bedroom as his dad and I prepared for dinner. I was touched when he told me that.

I love that!

One nice thing about being an adult is that you can be in charge of your life and change things around from how it was when you were younger. NotUrsula, you should get take out pizza and watch football all day. I am sure there would be a few others who would love to join you for a stress-free day.

When I was little I really disliked how the kids were seperated from the adults, and how there was little interaction, the kids played and the adults chatted. So...when I became the grown-up I changed that all around. Ever since I have had kids, we play family games after dinner. The rest of the family has gone along with it, and my parents, etc have become 'game' people even though they never did that when they hosted. My kids are young adults now and would sometimes rather hang out and talk/watch football but my parents are right there saying "what game are we going to play?"

 

[brockash]

I like that it is solely about food, family and fun. No expectations of anything else. Is a comfortable holiday, anything goes. This year we finally decided no pies, no one eats them. They may have a slice, but I end up with pie left over.

Last year I had half a leftover ice cream cake and they were fighting over it.

This year we are doing ice cream sundaes! no pies.

ITA! Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday and has been as long as I can remember. It's just about a good meal, family, fun and the parade. I also love the smell in the house the whole day. There's no dealing with presents, and everything that goes with that. I dero love watching my kiddos on x-mas morning, but still Thanksgiving is so much more mentally relaxed for me, and of course I love the ad's and shopping the day after

 

[PatsGirl]

Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday by far but I do LOVE my Mom's turkey stuffing and I love taking the carcass (sp?) home and making soup for everyone!

 

[luvsJack]

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite because I feel like we do the things that day that we SHOULD be doing Christmas instead of all the gift opening and stuff. We just enjoy each other's company as a family.

I just love the late afternoon, after dinner when all the women in the family gather in mom's living room and eat cake or pie and go over the ads for the next morning and make our "plan of attack".

 

[Nancyg56]

I've always hated Thanksgiving, and I fervently wish I could just skip celebrating it. I'd much rather spend the day watching college football and eating takeout pizza.

I am so sorry that you are in this position. I would not negotiate at all. MIL would be supplying the protein and cooking it. BIL and SIL would be taking care of whatever special foods that they need and you could cook whatever you liked.

Thanksgiving is a Holiday that seems to revolve around food but I don't think that is what the Holiday should be. The stress that is imposed on you is not fair and takes any joy you have away. If the bulk of this meal, along with all the special requests is on you and there is all this commotion then I would order pizza and I would enjoy that meal. It is time to start your own tradition.