Monthly Musings- Thanksgiving Prep

Joining Holly and Patty for this month's Monthly Musings

1. Do we host or go elsewhere? This  (long answer) is going to answer question 4 as well!

My parents are both gone (deceased, but gone sounds slightly less awful) and Donnie's parents divorced the year after we were married and both remarried. So, we have not had a traditional or typical extended family parent situation wherein the parents of adult kids want all of their kids and grandkids home and around the dining room table for a Thanksgiving meal. (Same goes for Christmas but sub the dining room table for the Christmas tree.) We were asked early on in our marriage to host Christmas for Donnie's side of the family which we said we'd do (early in the years of his parent's divorce, both of his parents would come over on Christmas Day but at different times). Donnie and I decided that since we host Christmas for Donnie's side of the family, we would spend Thanksgiving with mine. Another dynamic to note is that in addition to being parentless for almost all of my adult life, none of my siblings live close by. My sister hosted Thanksgiving in Indiana for our siblings and families several years at her house so our tradition for several years was to go to Indiana to my sister's house. 

And then my sister and her family moved to Canada (her husband grew up there but said he had no plans to move back there.... until he did (long story)). That changed things for the five orphaned siblings!! My brothers generally couldn't take the time off of work to make the trip to Canada around Thanksgiving and in addition to that, though my sister was willing to host, Canada's Thanksgiving is not the same date as America's Thanksgiving so we wondered if it made sense to celebrate American Thanksgiving in Canada. It was important for my sister and me to spend the holiday together since we're so close so we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada. To lesson the time that my sister's kids would have to miss school due to celebrating a holiday that was not the same as their country's (eg my nieces didn't get the American Thanksgiving holiday days off of school like American kids generally get Wed.- Friday off of school the week of Thanksgiving), we began traveling on Thanksgiving to Canada and then having our Thanksgiving meal on Friday. That way, my sister only kept her girls out of school on Friday.

The Rineer family on Thanksgiving weekend in Canada- my sister lives close to Niagara Falls so most visits to Canada include a trip to the falls. This one did.

The cousins and my sister

My sister's MIL lived right on Lake Erie so trips to Canada also usually included cold trips to the beach

Five years ago (almost to the day), my brother Jay died unexpectedly. (No, longevity is not something that I count on given my family's history/ genetics.) He was very unhealthy as an adult due to strong medications that he had to take as a child who suffered from juvenile arthritis. Though he was unhealthy, his death was still a shock to us and it changed, among other things, our Thanksgiving tradition. I didn't want my brother John, who had been close to Jay, to not have plans (Jay and John always spent Thanksgiving together) so we decided to host Thanksgiving for our side of the family. (It's much easier for John to get to our house for Thanksgiving than it it was for him to get to Canada due to where he lives and his job.) So now we host Thanksgiving for my side of the family. It means hosting two holidays (and I am not a hostess by nature) but it's worth it to be able to spend time with family. But... we began hosting our Thanksgiving meal on Friday and not Thursday because of my brother Joe. He had his own Thanksgiving traditions on Thanksgiving but he could drive to our house the Friday after Thanksgiving. So... we host now but we didn't always. But we've consistently celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday. That's really one of the only  Thanksgiving constants no matter if we're hosting or not. 

The hostess with not exactly the mostest but I had turkey as well as plenty of desserts which is all that counts on Thanksgiving

Not sure if there was a cadre of camera people around me or not since I seem to be posing from a multiple vantage points, lol.

This year is already shaping up to be potentially different due to life/ job changes for my brothers. So, I don't know what this year will look like. Which kind of sums up our Thanksgiving traditions (to the extent we have them...). We get started with a tradition and then it changes. Lord willing, when our kids are all adults out of college, our house can be the "hub" for the adult kids and their families (with compromises regarding their respective spouses if they marry) and siblings won't have to wonder what the tradition will be. But, plans for the future are not mine to make or predict... it is just a wish of mine to have all the kids and their kids at home for the holidays. 

2. Dishes- when we traveled to Canada for Thanksgiving, it was hard to contribute side dishes since we arrived in Canada the day before. I usually brought homemade pies and cookies. When I host, honestly, there's no abundant feast.  I mean, there's plenty of food, don't get me wrong. But I don't make six or seven side dishes. It's too much work! (And like I said, I am not a hostess at heart, sorry fam!).  I make a turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, beans and then we have rolls and dessert. We have appetizers, too, but nothing too fancy. When I read about some people's literal feasts (I'm thinking of you Holly!), I am amazed and impressed by how many side dishes people have.

Katy and I pose next to our menu list

3. Favorite recipe- One thing that I do is for mashed potatoes, instead of milk, I add cream cheese and then some butter (I never measure). The cream cheese makes the potatoes that much more creamy and rich. My favorite dessert recipe would be pecan chocolate chip pie. It is so decadently rich. I use this recipe.

4. As far as traditions, I delved into this earlier... we have traveled to Indiana for Thanksgiving to Canada to... not leaving the house and hosting at home. We traditionally celebrate it the day after Thanksgiving on Friday. We traditionally spend it with my side of the family (when we are in town, we almost always see Donnie's dad, stepmom, uncle and sister on Saturday or Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate November birthdays). The only other tradition that I can think of is we try to get a good family photo since we usually dress a little nicer than normal. If the picture turns out good, I oftentimes use this photo as our Christmas card photo.

Our first ever family photo Christmas card- the picture was taken on Thanksgiving at my sister's house- Bub's first Thanksgiving and the first opportunity to show off his cuteness to the masses (birth announcements don't really count since newborns are too new to exude a personality and to show off their squishy baby fat). Not sure why Donnie appears so much taller than me here. I must have been crouching or something? Who knows but all I remember is that I loved sending the cards out to family and friends.

Speaking of newborns, by next year, Bub was a Big Bub. My sister took this family photo of us at her house on Thanksgiving.

(This was not taken at my sister's house- I can tell it was taken at our house so I don't know if we hosted Thanksgiving for some reason or if this wasn't taken on Thanksgiving. I'm including it because it shows how much Abby changed in a year (or close to a year))

Fast forward a few years and another kid- this was taken Thanksgiving the last year that my sister and her family lived in Indiana (they then moved to Canada).

This was taken the last year that we went to Canada for Thanksgiving. These pictures were taken in Canada. The top two are in the Niagara Falls visitor center and the bottom ones are of us at the falls.

Thanksgiving in Ohio

This was our card last year. I had pictures from the entire year on it. But the biggest one is a family picture that we had taken on Thanksgiving.

5. Usually dressing. I made stuffing once and it was really good. But I read that it's difficult to get the stuffing cooked long enough to kill the bacteria from the raw turkey juice that seeps into it. By the time the stuffing is cooked to a hot enough temperature, the turkey may be dried out. So I made stuffing once but now am sticking with dressing.

6. Pecan pie, but make it chocolate as well. I make at least one pumpkin pie- Donnie loves them. But my favorite pie and one that I always make for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas is chocolate chip pecan pie.

7. We set the table(s). We usually have to have guests sit at our kitchen table as well as the dining room table. These next two pictures look like they are of Christmas Day what with the Christmas trees and Christmas dishes. Our town always has a Christmas festival the weekend before Thanksgiving. That gives me an incentive to get some of our Christmas decorating done prior to Thanksgiving. I usually have the trees in the dining room and entry way up and decorated by Thanksgiving.

8. Beverages- we serve pop, water, coffee and if the hot cocoa bar is set up by Thanksgiving, then hot cocoa as well.

9. No shopping on Black Friday for me- that is usually when we have our big Thanksgiving meal. I did Black Friday shopping once. The crowds are not for me. I enjoy shopping cyber Monday and finding good deals online.

10. Football for sure during the day.