Favorite Thanksgiving Memories!!

[DianeVegan]

Considering the pain the accompanies "turkey day" for many of us, I decided to start a thread about the happy memories we have of this day of thanks. My following story happened (again and again) before I was vegan, so it does involve a non-vegan dish. Hope no one gets offended. Here goes:

My family is spread throughout the U.S. so Thanksgiving used to consist of just me, my older sister and my Grandmother for many of my college years. Grandma used to make a jelled cranberry-cherry dish with diced fruit and walnuts. We abhored it but couldn't tell her. Instead, we would set each other up every Thanksgiving by saying "Oh grandma, I don't really like it but ______ LOVES it. Please give my helping to her."

Since we usually arrived seperately, and grandma's memory wasn't good from year to year, the first one there was always the winner. Then I got married and figured that 2 against 1 - we would always win no matter what time we showed up.

The first time my then husband sat down to the Thanksgiving dinner he announced that he was allergic to walnuts (a lie) but would be happy to give his share to Diane because "She rants about how lovely this cranberry dish is."

As you can imagine, that marriage didn't make it (yep, that's all it took ).
However, my sister and I still laugh about that awful jelled dish to this day!

(But we loved grandma's stuffing and now have a veganized version in her memory .)

[mophoto]

that's too funny my grandma just takes a can of cranberry something and plops it on a tray. it still has the rings indented in it from the can. very nasty (only thing that isn't homemade)

i am having my first vegan thanksgiving the night before for my friends (i can take the leftovers to my aunt's on thanksgiving)- i can't wait, but am i bit nervous about making some of the dished for the first time. hopefully i will have it every year and that will be what my memories are based on

[Seaside]

that's too funny my grandma just takes a can of cranberry something and plops it on a tray. it still has the rings indented in it from the can. very nasty (only thing that isn't homemade)

My step mom at least cuts the canned stuff into slices, and then cuts the slices with a cookie cutter to make them look nice.
I like to make it fresh, myself.

[DianeVegan]

I cannot believe that no one else has a Thanksgiving memory to share!

Well, here is one turkey who will have a fond memory. How screwed up is this holiday?

[assilembob]

I have one!!!!!

hehe...
the first year I was veggie I took some of my own food to thanksgiving. My MR cousin (she's on a 3-4 year old level) walked through and grabbed a bunch of food...and most of it was from my stuff. She ate all of my food and none of the other.
Her mom kept trying to get her to eat the other food too but she was resisting and kept pointing to me
hehe
My aunt says she still won't eat obvious meat, but doesn't know the difference when its in things if it's small
I converted a child!
That was 9 years ago.

My other general one is all of us waiting for my oldest uncle to fall asleep so we can put makeup on his face and take pictures.
And every year he gets mad, and every year he still falls asleep.
~Mel

[Hemlock]

I cannot believe that no one else has a Thanksgiving memory to share!

Well, here is one turkey who will have a fond memory. How screwed up is this holiday?

I do, the best Yule of my life.
It was 1967 and I was 5 years old. I loved my grandparents more than anyone and that year we were going to them for Christmas which I was really looking forward to as my mum was a single parent (rare in those days) and we lived in a bedsit in London.
They lived in a really cute cottage by the river and it was one of those villages you don't get any more full of proper country folk and not office managers and company directors.
They had no central heating only open fires and on Christmas Eve all the fires had been lit and the cottage was warm and toasty. My grandma was an artist and craftswoman and had decorated a small pine tree (with roots so it could be replanted afterwards) with dozens of tiny glass birds (no other lights or ornaments) wgich glittered and shone in the firelight.
She had gone out and gathered large bunches of holly which she put around the room in pottery jugs. I can't describe how lovely and uncommercial it looked.
The next day I woke up all excited and wonder of wonders snow started falling, we actually had a proper white Christmas. The snow fell steadily all day and all the local ponds were already frozen. The garden was full of trees and lovely winter plants as my grandfather was a keen gardner and grew all his own fruit and vegetables and kept chickens free range. Everything was covered in a ghostly layer of white snow which froze and sparkled. I got the present I wanted which was a spirograph set and I played with it all day and also lots of books which was great as I was a terrible bookworm.
Grandma was also a brilliant cook and the table was laden with fantastic food - yes regretably meat but mostlywonderful vegetables and homemade sauces, all her food was homemade or grown/raised on local farms.
Later that day my uncle Charles took me skating on a frozen pond and we all messed about throwing snowballs and the like.
The next day (due to inadequate guttering) there were huge icicles hanging off the roof making the place look like an icy gingerbread house.
I've never had such a wonderful Yule since and my grandparents are long gone but the happy memories will live with me for ever

[Hemlock]

P.S I know you said thanksgiving but we don't have that over here

[DianeVegan]

P.S I know you said thanksgiving but we don't have that over here

That was such a great memory, I don't think anyone minds.

Assilembob, I wish I had an uncle to do that with - your family sounds like a lot of fun.

[Yogini]

The best Thanksgiving I ever had was the year I told my family I was too poor to travel and told my friends I was too sick to leave the house. Then I watched The Exorcist and the South Park Movie while eating Tofurkey. I get to do the same thing this year - yay! Except this year it will be Unturkey and the films will be The Piano and the last four episodes of the first season of Law and Order.

Probably doesn't sound so great to anyone else, but a day to myself just eating and watching videos, while not working or studying is my idea of heaven.

Love,
Anna

[DianeVegan]

Anna,
Your Thanksgiving sounds lovely to me. I never get to be alone on the holidays because I have to do all the cooking for my family. Once the kids are on their own I think I'll try your version of Thanksgiving.

[Spiral]

Hi Diane,
Is thanksgiving as big a family event as christmas to Americans? Are they both celebrated in a similar way?

[DianeVegan]

Not the same. Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday of November and consists of just one day of eating till you burst and then watching american football. The next day many people don't have to work and it is the kickoff day for the "holiday shopping season" also known as "black friday." Meaning: come out and spend your money, we're putting everything on sale!

On Thanksgiving we don't exchange gifts with each other but are supposed to give thanks for all that we have. Traditional foods are sweet potatoes, mashed white potatoes, stuffing (bread or cornbread or rice), gravy, cranberries, turkey , pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie. It varies a little depending on the region of the country. It's really all about the food on Thanksgiving.

On christmas, individual families may have their traditional foods but it isn't as nationally traditional as Thanksgiving. Many families do make cookies. A decorated tree is traditional, lights strung outside homes and around windows, stockings hung over fireplaces or on stairways, the scent of pine (now available in candles, sprays, potpourri, you name it), and really bad lawn decorations. Christmas eve can be a time of family for some with traditional foods (many families of Italian descent have fish dishes that evening). Some open gifts under the tree on christmas eve and some wait until the next morning (more common). Then on christmas day there is usually a big family meal. Some families eat almost identical to Thanksgiving on this day.

Gym membership usually peaks the first week of January.

[Spiral]

Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday of November and consists of just one day of eating till you burst and then watching american football. The next day many people don't have to work and it is the kickoff day for the "holiday shopping season" also known as "black friday." Meaning: come out and spend your money, we're putting everything on sale!

Sounds pretty much like christmas in the UK. People watch sport like football, and unfortunately, horse racing, on Boxing day (the day after christmas day) and go mad at the sales.

...lights strung outside homes and around windows... and really bad lawn decorations.

This has caught on in the UK in recent years. In the next street to me I saw the first house decorated with lights and glowing snowmen yesterday.

The reason I asked about thanksgiving is I heard a programme about it on the radio yesterday and the person being interviewed said there was an increase in things like domestic violence because the time of year can be stressful with families being together when they don't always want to be. This happens in the UK at christmas. I was just thinking it's double the stress in the US with the events being so close together. Of course most people have only happy memories of this time of year, but sometimes the stress does get on top of people.

[Yogini]

I would imagine that a lot of the domestic violence this time of year is also alcohol related. I don't know about the rest of you, but put my entire family in one house and give us a lot of beer and wine, and someone's gonna get hurt.

Love,
Anna

[DianeVegan]

LOL, I just got off the phone with a good friend (hungover) telling me about the problems she had last night with some family members. Put 14 children under the age of 12, 6 dogs and 14 adults under one roof with a gallon of pomengranate martinis - I'm surprised there wasn't more violence. She did manage to bean her brother in the back of the head with a lemon and she thinks she may have a rectal laceration from the wedgie he gave her. Otherwise they did okay.

We stuck to 6 adults, one cat and a macaw and everyone was still friends this morning.