Thanksgiving and Entertainment Weekly
Nov. 15th, 2010 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
multipurposegoddessAbout a month ago, I guess, I was behind in my reading and maybe even had hit an article in the then just out-of-current EW that I didn't want to read for whatever reason, so when the then current one came in I knew I wouldn't get to it for a while so I put it somewhere. Somewhere safe. And logical. And the following week I was still not reading EW so I put that issue with the earlier one, carefully stacking them in order so the older one would be on top when I was ready to catch up. And when the next issue came in, I decided it was too much trouble to go put it with the others (which I apparently, at that time, still kew where they were because this was a decision, not a default) and left it on the end table by the loveseat. I'm caught up now, and of course cannot find the hoarded issues and can't bring myself to just skip them and read the newer ones that i do know where they are (which are now piling up a bit on their own) because I am some kind of insane.
Talked to my mom today. Amongst other conversation, she what I wanted to do about Thanksgiving and I tod her I wanted to avoid it, maybe go all out Peanuts with toast and popcorn. She was very understanding. It might be a good day to go the movies, catch the early showing when everyone else is feasting.
Thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday. There's no stress about finding the right gifts, no obligation to go to church (or shul), when I was growing up we were far enough away from the extended family that we just didn't bother trying to get together with them, so I don't have any of that sort of trauma, just delicious food, everybody pitching in to cook a huge amount, everybody cleaning up together, and delicious leftovers for days. When I went to college, my folks were a 6 hour or so drive away, so I brought a lot of dorm mates home with me every year, and that was always a good time. I was never afraid of roasting turkeys, as many young people apparently are, so I would frequently find myself volunterering to cook up a turkey that someone's parents had bought them that they didn't know what to do with (not usually on Thanksgiving, but a roast turkey is always a little Thanksgivingish, whenever it happens). While I was at Chico, I worked at a movie theater and we didn't get holidays off, but a bunch of us started doing Xmas in July so we could do the whole decorating and roasting a turkey and all that when we could make some time to do it.
Henry's family had kind of never gotten the hang of Thanksgiving. Our first T-Day in New Orleans (which was also, come to think of it, our first Thanksgiving as a couple, as we had met the previous December) I don't think I had even met his parents, so there was no question of me joining them. Which was fine with me, I wanted my usual meal anyway. So I sent H off to (I think) have a restaurant dinner with his folks and I cooked all day, and our roommate (IIRC) worked so he could Friday and Monday off instead. What with one thing and another, I ended up eating by myself around 8, maybe, and they were both astounded when they drifted in after 10 that there was this whole dinner I'd made. So Thanksgiving became a holiday for H and me to celebrate as our own household, not necessarily as part of our parents' houses.
The following year was when we lived in the tiny apartment with no oven or stove, so I don't know what we did for a meal. Possibly we went out with his parents (I know we did that at least once before his father died), possibly we visited my parents, I don't remember. Every year after that, we often did have to do a family meal of some sort, but we'd always have the full spread on our own at some point, maybe the next day. 2004 we brought everything over to his mom's house and I cooked and they watched football and parades and we all nibbled on crudites and crackers and drank wine until everything was ready and H made the cranberry sauce from scratch and impressed his mom with that so much more than my turkey and stuffing and sweet potato casserole and pies. That had become his specialty as soon as he found out how easy it was and how consistently well it turned out; he was a real expert by that time. That was a really good day, and may have become a lasting tradition if we'd stayed in NO.
2005, of course, we were displaced and staying with my parents. We made these awesome bread cornucopias filled with roasted vegetables and H told us all about how he had failed ceramics as a kid and still had a complex about Crafts in general, but his cornucopia was fine. 2006 I don't really remember (I don't remember most of that year, it was not a good time), but I did have a kitchen again so presumably we had our usual meal. 2007, we moved into this house over Thanksgiving weekend, so we didn't cook, but we spent T-Day up on Mt. Diablo with my parents and some Thanksgivingish deli takeout. H was just a few weeks out of rehab, there was lot of transition going on, and that was a really pleasant day.
2008 I got the Heritage bird from the co-op and butterflied it over vast quantities of stuffing, and everything, even the brussel sprouts, came out the best they ever have and we just grazed on the deliciousness all day and watched as much football as we wanted and may not have gotten dressed because we were in our very own house with no guests and it was fantastic. That was our last Thanksgiving together, so I guess it's good that it was particularly great. Last year I shipped him off to NO right before Thanksgiving. That was really hard and I was sorely tempted to postpone, but it was definitely an immediate action sort of situation. He went out to a restaurant with his Mom and her friend and he had not!turkey because the restaurant Thanksgiving meal wouldn't be like what we always had. I went to my folks and had a vegetarian meal with them. H's flight home was on 12/24, we spent the 25th as much in the traditional way as we could (going to the movies and not being able to find a handy Chinese restaurant so settling for concession stand food), but used the rest of the long weekend to have our traditional Thanksgiving meal, just not when everyone else was having theirs.
So, don't wanna this year. Popcorn and toast, or mac and cheese.
Talked to my mom today. Amongst other conversation, she what I wanted to do about Thanksgiving and I tod her I wanted to avoid it, maybe go all out Peanuts with toast and popcorn. She was very understanding. It might be a good day to go the movies, catch the early showing when everyone else is feasting.
Thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday. There's no stress about finding the right gifts, no obligation to go to church (or shul), when I was growing up we were far enough away from the extended family that we just didn't bother trying to get together with them, so I don't have any of that sort of trauma, just delicious food, everybody pitching in to cook a huge amount, everybody cleaning up together, and delicious leftovers for days. When I went to college, my folks were a 6 hour or so drive away, so I brought a lot of dorm mates home with me every year, and that was always a good time. I was never afraid of roasting turkeys, as many young people apparently are, so I would frequently find myself volunterering to cook up a turkey that someone's parents had bought them that they didn't know what to do with (not usually on Thanksgiving, but a roast turkey is always a little Thanksgivingish, whenever it happens). While I was at Chico, I worked at a movie theater and we didn't get holidays off, but a bunch of us started doing Xmas in July so we could do the whole decorating and roasting a turkey and all that when we could make some time to do it.
Henry's family had kind of never gotten the hang of Thanksgiving. Our first T-Day in New Orleans (which was also, come to think of it, our first Thanksgiving as a couple, as we had met the previous December) I don't think I had even met his parents, so there was no question of me joining them. Which was fine with me, I wanted my usual meal anyway. So I sent H off to (I think) have a restaurant dinner with his folks and I cooked all day, and our roommate (IIRC) worked so he could Friday and Monday off instead. What with one thing and another, I ended up eating by myself around 8, maybe, and they were both astounded when they drifted in after 10 that there was this whole dinner I'd made. So Thanksgiving became a holiday for H and me to celebrate as our own household, not necessarily as part of our parents' houses.
The following year was when we lived in the tiny apartment with no oven or stove, so I don't know what we did for a meal. Possibly we went out with his parents (I know we did that at least once before his father died), possibly we visited my parents, I don't remember. Every year after that, we often did have to do a family meal of some sort, but we'd always have the full spread on our own at some point, maybe the next day. 2004 we brought everything over to his mom's house and I cooked and they watched football and parades and we all nibbled on crudites and crackers and drank wine until everything was ready and H made the cranberry sauce from scratch and impressed his mom with that so much more than my turkey and stuffing and sweet potato casserole and pies. That had become his specialty as soon as he found out how easy it was and how consistently well it turned out; he was a real expert by that time. That was a really good day, and may have become a lasting tradition if we'd stayed in NO.
2005, of course, we were displaced and staying with my parents. We made these awesome bread cornucopias filled with roasted vegetables and H told us all about how he had failed ceramics as a kid and still had a complex about Crafts in general, but his cornucopia was fine. 2006 I don't really remember (I don't remember most of that year, it was not a good time), but I did have a kitchen again so presumably we had our usual meal. 2007, we moved into this house over Thanksgiving weekend, so we didn't cook, but we spent T-Day up on Mt. Diablo with my parents and some Thanksgivingish deli takeout. H was just a few weeks out of rehab, there was lot of transition going on, and that was a really pleasant day.
2008 I got the Heritage bird from the co-op and butterflied it over vast quantities of stuffing, and everything, even the brussel sprouts, came out the best they ever have and we just grazed on the deliciousness all day and watched as much football as we wanted and may not have gotten dressed because we were in our very own house with no guests and it was fantastic. That was our last Thanksgiving together, so I guess it's good that it was particularly great. Last year I shipped him off to NO right before Thanksgiving. That was really hard and I was sorely tempted to postpone, but it was definitely an immediate action sort of situation. He went out to a restaurant with his Mom and her friend and he had not!turkey because the restaurant Thanksgiving meal wouldn't be like what we always had. I went to my folks and had a vegetarian meal with them. H's flight home was on 12/24, we spent the 25th as much in the traditional way as we could (going to the movies and not being able to find a handy Chinese restaurant so settling for concession stand food), but used the rest of the long weekend to have our traditional Thanksgiving meal, just not when everyone else was having theirs.
So, don't wanna this year. Popcorn and toast, or mac and cheese.