Anyone else look at the calendar and realize... it's in 4 days?! Where have I been? We are not having it done at our house this year, we are actually going over a relative's home. Maybe that's why I didn't keep track?

So, what are you all planning for your Thanksgiving?

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 05:05 pm:

5 days! Well, maybe 4-1/2 days by now. It isn't very far away. I'm going to end up doing Thanksgiving with my family AND Gary's family all in one day!

By Enchens on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 05:10 pm:

See how off I've been? Lol

By Vicki on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 06:08 pm:

We will be having at our house again. We usually have between 25 to 30 people! Everyone brings stuff though, so that is a huge help. We make 2 turkeys (one in the oven and one in the deep fryer) I also will make the gravy, noodles and a dessert and provide all the paper products. Everyone else brings everything else!

By Debbie on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 10:36 pm:

We are going to my brother and sil's house. It is a 3 hour drive. My parents are meeting us there. It is right in the middle of us, and they have a huge house with plenty of room, so it works out great. I am making a pie, and a sweet potato casserole to bring. We leave early Wed. morning, and will stay until Saturday. We are coming back early Saturday, so we can start decorating for Christmas.

I do have to brag that I finished all my Christmas shopping this week!!!

By Cat on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 11:04 pm:

We're frying a turkey again this year. Actually, a couple friends are bringing their turkeys over before we fry ours so they can fry theirs in our fryer! It works out great--only one pot of boiling grease! lol It'll just be us for dinner, though. At least my mom is here this year.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 11:18 pm:

We're going to my in-laws for 2 nights about 2 hrs. from here. We'll also stop in at my parents' house as well, although not to eat. I'm just making a dessert. I've yet to make a Thanksgiving dinner in almost 11 years, LOL!

Debbie...I'm going to brag with you. I'm *almost* done. Just a few more small things to get, and 2 will be online purchases. Yippee!

By Bellajoe on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 08:43 am:

I'm having Thanksgiving dinner at my house for the first time! 17 guests! My dh will be deep frying it. He's had them before but we have never done it before. We've read all the safety instructions etc.so we are ready! It says several times in the instructions "Person Frying Turkey MUST be sober!" which just made me laugh. A drunk person around a hot fryer would definitely NOT be a good idea.

I"m making several of the side dishes and people are also bringing dishes. I was freaking and all nervous about it but then I realized that it IS just family coming over. It really should not be that big a deal. Plus, i'm not the one actually making the turkey! LOL

THEN I have to start thinking about Christmas.
Last year I decorated and put the tree up right after Thanksgiving, but by the time Christmas came I was tired of the tree being there and just wanted to take it down. I have vowed to not put the tree up till December 14th. We are out of town the first 2 weekends in December so that does help! LOL

By Mrs_B on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 11:32 am:

We're having a potluck style Thanksgiving with our friends and family. There will be about 40+ people there and as always, we always end up opening our homes to Marines who have nowhere else to go for the holidays.

We are having 3 turkeys and 2 hams.... lots of mouths to feed. We always deep fry one turkey and then DH and his best friend have a turkey cook off with the other 2 turkeys to see who makes it better. LOL Works GREAT for us girls!

I'm in charge of making:

Antipasto salad
Sweet Potato Casserole
Mashed Potatoes/Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Cheesecake

I'm excited!

By Kay on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 12:45 pm:

We have a very small group this year at our house - only 9. Bob always smokes the turkey, and I'll make spoonbread. Other dishes are up in the air...I should make a decision pretty quickly!

By Latonya on Sunday, November 23, 2008 - 06:10 pm:

DH has to work so we are just having a dinner with just us early cause he has to be at work at 4pm.

By Kaye on Monday, November 24, 2008 - 06:12 am:

We are going to Dallas to my BIL's. I think right now the official rsvp count is about 25. My hubby's family is divided and remarried and on and on, it is complicated. We used to try to do several occasions every holiday. About 3 years ago my SIL hosted and just said nope, with really 40 people invited you can just adjust and invited everyone. So there are years that both my FIL, step MIL, MIL, step FIL, some of my MIL's siblings and my step MIL's family are all there. It was weird the first time, but now it just isn't a big deal. I do desserts, plus rolls and a side dish. This year I will also do an appetizer.

By Crystal915 on Monday, November 24, 2008 - 11:48 am:

We are driving up to my ex-in laws for Thanksgiving, because this is my first on the East Coast in 7 years. This should be interesting, but at least I don't have to cook!!!

By Karen~admin on Monday, November 24, 2008 - 05:39 pm:

As usual, the kids will spend T'giving with their dad's family, as always. DH is working Friday-Sunday, and we are leaving Monday for vacation, so we will probably just throw something on the grill since it will just be the 2 of us.

By Yjja123 on Monday, November 24, 2008 - 11:15 pm:

We always host Thanksgiving. It is a combination celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas with hubby's side of the family. This means besides cooking the majority of the meal, I have to have the house decorated for Christmas. I also have to have all the Christmas presents for them ready to be handed out. I am always stressed the week of Thanksgiving but... once it is over I am ready for Christmas. We celebrate Christmas alone (just our immediate family) and I LOVE it! It is worth the stress of Thanksgiving, to have Christmas to ourselves.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 09:42 am:

My dear dil's mother does Thanksgiving, and we all bring things. Scott makes a couple of kinds of bread, plus small loaves for everyone to take home. I make my "famous" cranberry sauce - just following the recipe on the bag of fresh cranberries, one batch regular and one with half orange juice and some orange zest.

My dil usually does Christmas dinner, but I doubt very much she'll be up to it this year, what with the new baby, so we'll see.

Bellajoe - make sure the turkey is absolutely, thoroughly thawed before it goes into the deepfryer. I've think I've read of problems with partly frozen turkeys.

By Colette on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:26 am:

Ginny, you might want to look at the cranberry sauce recipe on the recipe page to see if it's something you would like. Very easy and a little different too, just cranberries, sugar, water and then a few spices.

I love Thanksgiving. Just eat, drink and socialize. I do all of the cooking and everyone brings appetizers, a side dish or a dessert. I have 14 total this year. My family tends to find people who don't have a place to go and bring them to my house. This year will be bittersweet because 2 yrs ago, my mother brought her friend, Sally, over from Ireland. Sally is a professional soprano and was so impressed with my in-laws, she spontaneously sang a song for them (I think it was Ave Maria)in my living room. They were absolutely thrilled. My mil died unexpectedly 3 weeks later, and my fil spoke often of Sally and how much that meant to them. Holidays are rough now without them. I think this one will be a little tougher.

By Bobbie~moderator on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 11:07 am:

((((Colette))))

We are going to my sisters church, they have a big Thanksgiving Dinner every year. They cook up 10 turkeys and a couple of hams, everyone else brings multiple side dish, desert, etc. Then that afternoon they bus in the people from the homeless shelter and send out invites to all the people that have used their food pantry for the year, offering rides to those that need one. I think there were over 200 of us there last year, it was a really good time, so we have decided to make it our tradition.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 02:50 pm:

Ginny
Thank you. The directions do say to make sure it is thoroughly thawed and completely dry before putting it in the hot oil. Apparently it can/will explode if you put a still partially frozen turkey in hot oil. That would not make for a great thanksgiving... although we do have 2 retired firemen, and 3 nurses as neighbors. LOL But I don't intend to have to use them!

Bobbie, that sounds so wonderful.

By Cat on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 02:57 pm:

Patti, if there's any moister at all in the bird the grease will splatter. My sil has gone so far as to take a hairdryer to their turkey before putting it in the oil! lol Yeah, it's that important. You'll love it, though. It's the easiest (and fastest!) way to cook a bird and it comes out VERY moist--not greasy, though. Think about it--when you dip the bird into oil that's 450* it instantly seers the outer skin so all the juices stay inside. Yummy!

By Tayjar on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 03:19 pm:

They sent us a messge today at work about being safe when deep fryng turkeys. Hundreds of fires each year due to the fryer exploding or tipping over. It absolutely must not be done in your garage or enclosed area. And, the bird must be completely thawed and dried.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 08:55 pm:

He will do it in the driveway, away from the house. I will remember the hairdryer tip!

We are definitely going to be careful and cautious with this.

Thanks for the concerns and tips!

By Pamt on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 10:41 pm:

We are far away from our families, we have invited over 2 college students from our church who aren't going home. I also contacted the international students office at the university where I teach to invite any international students. We have 3 Chinese women coming over to experience a traditional American Thanksgiving with us as well.

DH is smoking 2 turkeys and I am making green bean casserole, hash brown casserole, Ramen noodle salad, ambrosia, rolls, pumpkin pie, and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 07:52 am:

Bellajoe, listening to the radio this morning, one suggestion is to have a small home fire-extinguisher handy. I'm sure your dh won't need it, but still .....

By Tarable on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 09:18 am:

Well we are making our normal trip to my mom's which means i just show up with my family and everything is there and cooked. I am trying to play nice with my sister this year so I am going trying to be nice and sweet and not start anything but I am also not going to let her walk all over me.

I LOVE fried turkey but my sister doesn't so we will be having a traditional one.

I would rather show up at Pam's for that white chocolate raspberry cheesecake though!

But since i am on Weight Watchers and it is going well I had my mom promise not to make any desserts that I can't resist. I know it is the easy way out but I would rather not be tempted than end up gaining all I have lost back for a weekend/day.