The Thanksgiving Mega Thread

I can't believe how excited I am about Thanksgiving this year. As much as I miss living in the UK, being with my family for Thanksgiving this year has me all aglow.

The in-laws did a Thanksgiving for me the three years I was over there, but it wasn't quite the same. I did appreciate their efforts, but was frustrated that they wanted to 'do Thanksgiving for me' but didn't let me be in on the menu, cooking or anything else. I was to just show up.

I recently discovered that Ikea sell crispy fried onions, like the kind you'd use for green bean casserole. Always an  option if you can't find the danish onions in Morrisons.

The in-laws did a Thanksgiving for me the three years I was over there, but it wasn't quite the same. I did appreciate their efforts, but was frustrated that they wanted to 'do Thanksgiving for me' but didn't let me be in on the menu, cooking or anything else. I was to just show up.

Sweet but I can understand your frustration. My inlaws have this weird unspoken rule that whoever is hosting the party/dinner/holiday etc has to do all of the cooking. There is never any offer from any of the other family members to help or bring a dish or to even do the dishes afterwards! Everytime we go to Jon's parents house, Jon and his siblings just sit there and wait for dinner while their parents slave away. I'm the only one who, according to my mother in law, has ever offered to help. In my family, everyone chips in or at the very leasts asks if they can help. 

My mother and father in law told me they wanted to have Christmas at our house this year. I believe there are various reasons behind this but the biggest is that my MIL wants someone to finally cook her some dinner rather than the other way around.

It is that way for Christmas too, where BIL does all the cooking and everyone waits for him to finish cooking and serve. It seems odd to me, since family holiday meals should be about the whole family. I have known other people who seem to have either a spoken or unspoken rule that whoever hosts does the cooking. I suppose what frustrated me most was that instead of being allowed to introduce them to foods that go with Thanksgiving, since they went to the effort of having Thanksgiving, it was more or less a turkey Sunday roast on a Thursday evening.

I can understand your MIL wanting someone else to take a turn so she can relax for once, but overall, I love the busy kitchen feel of everyone pitching in, as a family.

Well, this will be my first Thanksgiving in the UK and back home I was the one who always did the Holiday dinners, so of course I wanted to do the same here for my husband and son. We decided to invite any in hubby's family that might want to come and I was pleasantly surprised by how excited they all were about it! So, I now have a traditional meal planned for 12! My son and I are really excited to share one of our traditions with our UK family, in fact my son (13) has written a small speech to explain what Thanksgiving means to us and why we celebrate it. Now, if I can just find the parade online to watch!!!

Now, if I can just find the parade online to watch!!!

Posters on another thread have offered up two ways to watch.  See the last few posts on http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=77588.msg1056338.

Happy parade-watching!

I love the idea of your son giving the speech to explain what Thanksgiving means! That is so sweet and it will really help the 'locals' to understand. My hubby's family got the general idea but no the in-depth one and I never thought to explain it from a more emotional standpoint, but from an academic one.

Went to Whole Foods tonight to buy a pumpkin pie... my sole concession to Thanksgiving!  But... it was £10, and I just thought that was a ridiculous price, so I bought beer and salsa and Honey Crisp/Crunch (cant remember the actual name) apples instead!

£10 is a steal! The Kensington Whole Foods is selling them for £16! 

Bloo-dy hell! 

I bought a pumpkin tart instead. 

The boy has a massive deadline and is literally working every single day until xmas. So I'm treating him to a relaxing Thanksgiving day of no work! First we are off for a hike, then probably watch whatever football game is going on, followed by a restaurant 3 course thanksgiving meal and finished off over a bottle of wine and an online rental. Best of all ... no dishes!

For the first time in our lives, we went out.  My daughter and I went out with my brothers and their families.  I wasn't sure I'd like it, but it went very well!

I feel so relaxed after not having cooked. Is that wrong?

Not at all! 

We went out to a restaurant and it was fab not having to cook or do dishes.