I find it interesting that people booze it up with their families. That just seems so weird to me...I grew up in a dry household and we never had booze at holidays because my Uncle was recovering.
If I drink half a glass of wine at TG I am questioned about whether I am driving or K is.
Again- my family is not normal.
I had my first drink at 15 with my mom during a holiday. So, yeah...
I wonder if I am going to regret hosting. My ILs hosted last year, so I can't ask them to do it again, and my parents' house is on the market so my mom doesn't need the stress.
My mom is making some sides, MIL is making potatoes and dessert, and I'm in charge of the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and booze. Shouldn't be too crazy.
My family has decided to spend Christmas in Paris. I'm not sure I'm entirely thrilled about this.
With our upcoming move, DH will not likely be back in North America for Christmas for 2-3 years after this, so we let folks know we wanted to spend it with my family.
My brother and his family had already been planning a European thing for the holidays, so we're all glomming on to that (with encouragement from my brother and SIL). They'll be in Paris for Christmas, so that's the plan.
Paris isn't high in my list of places I want to see, particularly in late December when the weather is likely going to suck. But, DH is thrilled, and really looking forward to it. He's even looking up different things he wants to go see while we're there, and a couple tours he wants to take, too.
I've done this! We had a great time and went up the Eiffel Tower on Christmas eve. Roasted chestnuts from street vendors. Yum!
Post by jackpackage on Nov 13, 2012 15:20:07 GMT -5
My mom always orders fresh turkeys but I told her I'd pay for them (we host anyway). We're having 13 people, 3 of which are sometimes vegetarians, and she ordered 2 20 pounders. WTF mom! She was very offended when I suggested we change the order, so instead we'll have pretty much a whole bird for leftovers.
Post by sicilygirl on Nov 13, 2012 15:21:15 GMT -5
We're celebrating Thanksgiving with DH's family this year (we alternate). A few weeks ago, his sister texted and said we'd be eating at 1 pm at her house. I hadn't heard anything since then, so I texted her last night to ask what I should bring. When she responded, she threw in at the end of the text that they were wanting to eat at 5:30 instead and asked if we could still come.
I am irrationally annoyed by this for so many reasons. 1. I don't want to sit around all damn day with nothing to do, knowing that my family is celebrating Thanksgiving at lunch time (as usual), and we're missing it to sit at home alone.
2. Without even being told (although I was later in the conversation), I immediately knew it was because other SIL's kids would be with their dad during the day and she didn't want to celebrate without them. I get that it sucks to not be able to spend every holiday with your kids, but there are 25ish people in DH's immediate family (parents, brothers/sisters, nieces/nephews). We have ALWAYS eaten at lunch time, and I don't think we should all have to change our plans just to accommodate her. And also... it's not like she just figured this out. The kids are supposed to be with their dad this year on Thanksgiving, so this was always the plan. Of course, our plans/desires are not taken into consideration because we don't have children and therefore, our lives have no value.
I think it's bullshit that mil gives copious amounts leftovers to DH's brother and sister and said to us "here, let me scoop out the pie so you can have your plate back."Either keep them all for yourself, or offer them to everyone.
This is how black-Friday turkey day got started at our house. We go pick up a day-after discounted turkey and make our own damn meal so we can have our own damn leftovers.
I also hate buying gifts for one of my nieces. She's such a brat.
Post by kangaroo11 on Nov 13, 2012 15:29:03 GMT -5
I dislike turkey and stuffing. I'll be eating my usual of yams, asparagus, squash soup, and cranberries.
We're having barely any family come to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year! Uncle's girlfriend refuses to host people in their massive house, so they are going out for dinner and most of the family is going with them. My family refuses to eat big meals at a country club (we did once and it was AWFUL!), so instead we're having some family friends over.
MIL isn't coming either because her boyfriend has to work Thanksgiving weekend. I am grateful to be pregnant right now because I won't have to go to Christmas at her house and will just send DH for a day or two! She thought I was due sooner and acted upset because she thought he'd miss Christmas (we are Jewish), but since the baby shouldn't come until mid-January, he can go see her.
I love canned cranberry sauce. The smooth, jellied kind without any discernable fruit it in. I use the grooves from the can to cut nice, even pieces. I get angry when someone just spoons a glob from the can.
I hate being pregnant at the holidays. Drinking heavily is my #1 preferred way of dealing with my horrible, evil bitch of a grandma.
My plan is to bake and bring a million cookies (because oh yeah, my H's family doesn't care for desserts) and keep my mouth full of cookies at all times. Conflict avoidance through calories.
See, I like this idea, but if I did it my grandmother would make comments about how fat I am going to get during my pregnancy if I continue to eat "like that." Honestly I didn't even want to tell her I am pregnant but my dad let it slip. Ugh.
It just occurred to me that Christmas with MIL will be awful. FIL died this year, and I doubt BIL and SIL will come up for the holidays. No MIL buffer. Fuckity fuck.
Post by Velvetshady on Nov 13, 2012 15:57:01 GMT -5
Last year, we took T-giving "off". We order Chinese food and stayed home. This year, DH ordered a T-giving meal for four from a local restaurant. Just for us. We'll have leftovers.
And we're skipping x-mas with family this year too. DH has to work the 26th and he decided he didn't want to deal with driving home on x-mas day. It's the year we usually go to his side of the families and we expected guilt trips--they've been surprisingly good about it. Probably because we've warned them for years that it was going to happen sometime.
Gross. That sucks. Honestly, if I wanted to be a dick, I'd say "damn right, Grandma!" through a mouthful of cookies. Like, full on spraying her with cookie crumbs. LOL.
Yeah, people think I am awful for saying she's a bitch because how mean can a 91 year old lady be? PLENTY mean, trust me.
I am irrationally annoyed by this for so many reasons. 1. I don't want to sit around all damn day with nothing to do, knowing that my family is celebrating Thanksgiving at lunch time (as usual), and we're missing it to sit at home alone.
That sucks. Are you close enough to go to your family's for a while? We always go to DH's for dinner (lunch really) and then my aunt's for dessert. But fortunately the 2 houses are only 5 minutes from each other.
I wish our families were holiday drinkers. No one is a teetotaller, but they are all like another poster mentioned, where they will have maybe 1 or 2 glasses of wine & that's it. I'm jealous of all the boozy family parties!
I don't have a flameful, but Swizzle's post made me think of something that pisses my mom off.
What say MM?
My sister always stays the night with her IL's (Xmas eve into the day). My mom doesn't understand why they have NEVER had a Xmas morning alone.
Weird or not weird?
I'm not seeing the weirdness. Sounds like that's just their tradition. Maybe she doesn't want Christmas morning alone and prefers waking up in a house full of people.
Whatever float your boat really. DH and I need time to detox from xmas eve and prep for 12pm Xmas dinner at my folks. We need the morning to ourselves. We sleep in, take the dog for the walk. Sue us we don't want to be around family.
To us if they didn't have xmas dinner, we probably have no reason to actually go see them. DH is alreay cringing since normally my status of my uterus is on the table and last 3 years we actually left some holiday event since they don't understand "why we don't have grandchildren yet.."..I hate the holidays!!!
I am not a big fan of Thanksgiving. I hate pumpkin pie. I think Thanksgiving food is, for the most part, pretty overrated. I would love to try fun new recipes, but everyone in my family seems hell bent on having the same old crap, like that awful green bean casserole with the cream of mushroom soup. I hate football. I hate how the men in my normally very progressive family all lay around sleeping while the women do all the cooking and cleaning. The decorations aren't very pretty. The drinking is the best part, and I am knocked up so that is out.
I much prefer Christmas, with its twinkle lights, beef tenderloin, chocolate tortes, and little kids in matching pjs. And presents!
Post by explorer2001 on Nov 13, 2012 16:17:55 GMT -5
Tday: my dad and mom are going to visit my uncle (who had hit me in the past so I refuse to go there) and his family. I had to cancel my plans with my BFF because of all my medical drama. So rather than having any family on Tday, my parents are leaving town to be with an asshole rather than spend time with their daughter who had a major health scare. I am debating hosting a lost young adult pot luck or serving at the soup kitchen.
Xmas is right after my 30th.bday which my family will again forget or ignore depending on how you view it. My brother is coming in Xmas eve. His girlfriend is coming in the day after Xmas. My mother has been excited about this for months.
Then my good aunt,uncle and 3 cousins are coming the 27th through Jan 1. I refuse to host my brother. He's been an ass every time I've helped him out and respects no boundaries. So I'm trying to figure out how to host 5 relatives in my 3 bedroom house (2 adults,17 year old twins and a 7 year old). I'm sure this will be a clusterfuck but I am mostly refusing to care and preparing as best I can.
Post by Melissa W. on Nov 13, 2012 16:20:49 GMT -5
We are going to my cousins who is hosting 35 people. It is insane but fun. My flameful is that I am unsure how I will be civil to one of my cousins. She is disgusting.
My family has decided to spend Christmas in Paris. I'm not sure I'm entirely thrilled about this.
With our upcoming move, DH will not likely be back in North America for Christmas for 2-3 years after this, so we let folks know we wanted to spend it with my family.
My brother and his family had already been planning a European thing for the holidays, so we're all glomming on to that (with encouragement from my brother and SIL). They'll be in Paris for Christmas, so that's the plan.
Paris isn't high in my list of places I want to see, particularly in late December when the weather is likely going to suck. But, DH is thrilled, and really looking forward to it. He's even looking up different things he wants to go see while we're there, and a couple tours he wants to take, too.
This is the only thing I found flameful in this entire thread.
I still don't know who's hosting ... I'm assuming it's me. I'm looking forward to cooking but I'm not looking forward to how it's going to be without Dad.
I don't like pumpkin pie. I'm not really an apple pie fan, either. I do like my mom's chocolate cream pie, which is nothing more than storebought crust, Jello pudding, and Cool Whip.
I'll be glad to host because I don't want to drive up to H's family's. They're very good people, but it's a long drive (long enough to be tiring and not long enough to stay over), a very long day, and there are a TON of loud kids.
AUDETTE -- We spent Thanksgiving in Paris when it was just us and no kids. It was cold -- in the 30s the whole time, rained a few days, but we had an awesome time. We went to Disneyland Paris, we searched all over the city, ate the best fondue Napolitan, went to Shakespeare & Co near the Notre Dame Cathedral, went up to Montmarte. Even got gelato when it was frickin' freezing, and so many crepes! You can have an awesome time.
Oh, I'll end up enjoying it, I'm sure. Family, good food, cool things to see, and a DH that is so excited about going that he is already putting together lists of what he wants to do.
I'm just fed up of flying places, and it doesn't help that we're moving to South Korea within days of returning from the Christmas trip. Work travel kinda kills the desire to spend much of my own time on planes. (and I just got home late, late Sunday from the latest overseas trip, so feeling a little burned out on planes)
You stated you're not interested in Paris, not that you're burned out on planes.
I suppose it's a combo of both - if I'm going to be travelling that far, I'd rather go somewhere else, like Barcelona or Madrid or Rome. Or, if I'm going to be dealing with less than good weather, maybe we should consider London or Munich or farther east.
I went to Paris as a kid, and remember disliking it. Although, for full disclosure, there were other things impacting how much I'd enjoy the trip, so my impressions probably had very little to do with the city itself.
One year we ran out of alcohol at about 2PM on Thanksgiving Day, we sent my friend's father to the store for more.
We have played beer pong, flip cup, and have done a power hour at DH's family Christmas Eve party. The alcohol is the only thing that makes the evening bearable. We are flying to my grandma's Christmas morning and DH's mom told us the will drop us off at a hotel near their house and we can take a shuttle to the airport. F that - we'll just stay with DH's grandparent's place 10 minutes from the airport and skip the traditional midnight opening of presents.
DH's grandma always requests that I make her recipe for chocolate chip cake at Christmas Eve. Ummm, it is cake from a box, just let me cook what I want.
We still don't have Thanksgiving plans because my mom and brother are in a feud that they've pulled me into the middle of. I hate being the peacemaker between 2 unreasonable people.
I may or may not be hosting the holiday dinner at my house. We're in the middle of relocating, and if we host Thanksgiving, it will be at our house in our old city, 800 miles away from where we are now, and we won't even get there until Tuesday, 2 days before the holiday.
If I host, I have to figure out how to make a meal that the "normal" eaters will enjoy, plus food that my vegan brother & girlfriend will eat. Plus kid-friendly food for my ultra-picky nephews.
You stated you're not interested in Paris, not that you're burned out on planes.
I suppose it's a combo of both - if I'm going to be travelling that far, I'd rather go somewhere else, like Barcelona or Madrid or Rome. Or, if I'm going to be dealing with less than good weather, maybe we should consider London or Munich or farther east.
I went to Paris as a kid, and remember disliking it. Although, for full disclosure, there were other things impacting how much I'd enjoy the trip, so my impressions probably had very little to do with the city itself.
Paris in winter is great.
Unless you really love being in crowds of tourists.
This is my first thanksgiving without booze and we are tailgating. It's two occasions that I love drinking at combined. At least it's just DH and my parents and I don't have to worry about annoying family. I miss mimosas in the morning, martinis in the afternoon and wine during dinner and being so drunk no one can even think about going early black Friday shopping.
If you don't like turkey or stuffing, you obviously haven't had them with bacon. My stuffing is chunky and has apples, bacon, onions and sage. So yummy! The turkey has pureed raw bacon and herbs rubbed in under the skin before it's baked. The cranberry relish has fresh cranberries, oranges, and spices, and the freshly snapped green beans are sauteed with butter and garlic and sprinkled with grated romano cheese. The potatoes are whipped and buttery and the sweet potatoes are made into little puffs with a touch of orange zest.
I'm actually disappointed most years because I want to host Thanksgiving all by myself. I want to spend hours in the kitchen putting together the perfect spread, then have a few family or friends over to my festively decorated home where we all sit down to a formal meal.
Instead everyone thinks we should take turns, all chip in with the cooking, etc. I know, I'm nuts.
This year we are doing Christmas with DH's family, which entails us driving around town from one house to the next because a lot of his family members don't speak to each other. I haven't really told him that I don't really want his grandmother to meet our son - ever. Fortunately he's most likely totally on board with this. We'd have to go to her house to see her anyway and that place is so incredibly nasty so I really don't see that happening and she's not welcome much of anywhere else so it should be easy to avoid her.
Post by orangeblossom on Nov 13, 2012 17:37:38 GMT -5
There's not really one food I look forward to eating at the ILs Thanksgiving. IMO, no one's really that great of a cook, and to make matters worse I have to eat two meals: GMIL and MIL. Not looking forward to it at all.
I'm also bummed that my youngest SILs won't be there, and the one I hang out this will be housebound from surgery this week.