Thanksgiving

It really doesn't bother me.
I left home at 17, and it's been 36 years since I lived even within 100 miles of my family, so I'm used to it by now. 
They treat me like the prodigal son when I go to visit them, and always seem sad to see me go home, but once I'm away, I know I will never hear from them unless I make the effort to call or email.

But yeah... being introduced to my mom's friend, and the look of shock and confusion on the lady's face when she said 'I didn't even know you had another daughter!' was pretty classic!

Advantages of having a wee flat. I tell people that either people will fit or luggage but not both.

2 of my kids stayed with me during the wedding and I will never do that again. We were like a tin of sardines.

When youngest daughter and her girlfriend came last month I put her up in an Airbnb.

My sister and her family of 5 thought they could stay with me for 1 night. Yeah... no. That's an impossibility. She understood as soon as she saw my flat.

Small here is not the same as US small.  Lol

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Moms... I kinda envy those people with good moms.

My mom has borderline personality disorder and I cut her out of my life 5 years ago.

She sent my youngest daughter  (then 15 I think) a card with her old school pictures in it with a note that said, "Now I'll have room for pictures of my other grand children".

My mom has 8 children. She left the first 6 with their dad when they were little to run away with my dad. They had no idea where she went.

And she has the audacity to call me a terrible mother and way worse things. I finally had enough and went no contact. My life has been great without her in it.

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That's horrible.  Good on you for having the guts to put a stop to it. 

I decorate for Halloween and leave the general "fall" decorations around for Thanksgiving. We always have a Thanksgiving dinner together, though we usually celebrate it on Saturday instead of Thursday.

Last year he invited some work friends for Thanksgiving, who I'd only met once before. His friends were interested to try pumpkin pie, so I made it (my husband is pretty vocal about his distaste for anything pumpkin, so we usually do apple pie or something if we're celebrating alone). He still took a bite of the pumpkin pie, and promptly said in front of our guests "this tastes like vomit" and started laughing ! After being in a hot kitchen all day working hard to have everything just so, I was in NO mood to hear this kind of comment. I scolded him and told him he wasn't being very nice. After our guests left he apologized for being rude. Oh, and the pie, imo, was delicious. If you need a good one I highly recommend Ina Garten's 

I too would be leaving fall decorations up through Thanksgiving. To me, Thanksgiving is like the time of year when we say goodbye to fall (::sniffle sniffle: and hello to winter so I make sure to not remove any fall decor until after Thanksgiving is over!

RE your husband's comment, I would definitely be in no mood either if I were you. My husband would *definitely* be getting an earful.

Moms... I kinda envy those people with good moms.

My mom has borderline personality disorder and I cut her out of my life 5 years ago.

She sent my youngest daughter  (then 15 I think) a card with her old school pictures in it with a note that said, "Now I'll have room for pictures of my other grand children".

My mom has 8 children. She left the first 6 with their dad when they were little to run away with my dad. They had no idea where she went.

And she has the audacity to call me a terrible mother and way worse things. I finally had enough and went no contact. My life has been great without her in it.

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That is sooo sh*tty and I'm so sorry that you had to go through that (sounds like something I'd read on Reddit.com/justnomil or Reddit.com/justnofamily) but I am so happy that you've been able to eliminate that stress from your life (even though I'm sure it wasn't easy)

That is sooo sh*tty and I'm so sorry that you had to go through that (sounds like something I'd read on Reddit.com/justnomil or Reddit.com/justnofamily) but I am so happy that you've been able to eliminate that stress from your life (even though I'm sure it wasn't easy)

It became so much easier when I stopped listening to people tell me I just need to forgive her because "She is the only mom you have". No one should be guilted into having a relationship with a toxic person.

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It became so much easier when I stopped listening to people tell me I just need to forgive her because "She is the only mom you have". No one should be guilted into having a relationship with a toxic person.

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110%! The whole "buuuttt fammmilllyyyy" thing is just crap!

I've order one of those big paper turkeys as a decoration for Thanksgiving.  I'm trying to get into the spirit of things.

* Stuffing... I have nothing to say about stuffing because I don't like it. 

Has this ever been typed before?  Please explain.

My contribution to Thanksgiving advice:

Don't put weird things in casserole-type dishes. No artichokes in the mac-n-cheese. Home magazines will urge you to add weird things to make your dish stand out. Don't.

Has this ever been typed before?  Please explain.

It's funny you mention this because I never liked stuffing before and everybody thought I was a weirdo...but once moving over here my husband urged me to try it. He was like "it's literally breadcrumbs...you love bread.." and I realised I should probably give it a go, especialy because I do love breadcrumb-based things (like friend chicken) so why shouldn't I like literal baked breadcrumbs. It definitely stuck this time and I ALWAYS include stuffing now! haha Maybe it's the fact I'm getting older and more open minded...

I love stuffing and always throw in lots of shittake mushrooms. 

I'm always shocked to find UK stuffing is like bizarre sausage / meat.

I love stuffing and always throw in lots of shittake mushrooms. 

I'm always shocked to find UK stuffing is like bizarre sausage / meat.

ughh I will pass on the mushrooms. One thing I love is that hubby and I both HAAAATE mushrooms so I never have to worry about excluding them from our recipes lol.

Are UK stuffings meaty?? I feel like my dad's mom (US) would put giblets or something into her stuffing which is maybe why I hated it and refused to try it as it looked gross, but I might be remembering it wrong. I haven't noticed any meat-based stuffings since being over here but then I don't have stuffing all that often over here (almost always it's because I'm making it and I'm lazy and make it from a box where I "just add water" or whatever hahaha).

I really like the Tesco Pork, Chestnut & Onion stuffing.  It appears in the fresh food section just in time for Thanksgiving so I buy it then and again for Christmas dinner, yum!

M&S do a similar one but I don't like the texture, it's really gritty for some reason.

Pork, Chestnut and onion stuffing from Tescos - sounds good!  I'll get some of that.

Hubby will be doing the cooking - he does a fabulous turkey.  He enjoys cooking turkey because he was attacked by one in his youth (long story and very funny) and he feels it is a form of revenge to cook one.