Our family "tradition" (if you can call it that) involved watching Johnny Carson and Tom Snyder the night before while frantically trying to get the turkey semi-thawed through frequent water exchanges in the kitchen sink. (As a large family, we never had enough space in the refrigerator to permit a leisurely thawing of several days' duration.)

My sister and I have a tradition right AFTER Thanksgiving.

We get up (well, I get up; she stays up all night) around 3:30am, go to 7-11 to get vanilla cappuccinos, and hit all of the stores for Black Friday. We hit Starbucks around 8am and keep shopping. We finish around 11am and go home and sleep.

The best part is, both of us finish all of our Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. We just go out on Black Friday to people watch and buy stuff for ourselves.

Oh and I can't believe I forgot.....

We watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" right after dinner on Thanksgiving.

We've been doing that for 20 years. I think we started the first year it came out on VHS after being in the theatres.

I just started participating in a Thanksgiving tradition which has been going on for years now, my best friend and his family have had a multi-family turkey day gathering for years, and up until about three years ago my own family did their own thing since we had enough people to do so.

Throw in several life events (birth, death, marriage, that kind of thing) and my family now consists of three people at Thanksgiving. Pretty depressing.

So, we're joining the party and fusing with three other families this year and having a big shindig at my house - it should be pretty great.

(we're also baking a million pies as well)

My brother and his family have a fun tradition involving pies - all the guy members make pies, each to his own, and the results get judged by all of the guests. There can be five or more different pies to taste! First place has varied year to year, and it is apparently a pretty coveted achievement.

My boss is throwing a Thanksgiving party for a small group of people that frequent the bar he goes to a lot. I've been invited as well.

My old roommate down here is doing Thanksgiving as well, with a group of people he works with, all are good people.

So, do I go to my boss' party, or go to my old roommate's party, which is probably going to be more fun? And I know most of the people there and haven't seen them for awhile?
I'm not really enthused about going to his party, where I don't really know the other people. But its my boss.

I think I have a plan though. My boss' party is at 2, so maybe I can bug out early and still visit the old roommate's party.

If any of you have insight on how to best handle this, I'd love to hear them!

PCB Rob, you may have already blown the opportunity, but you should have told your boss that you were already booked.

Hal,
I did tell him I was already booked, but he would have none of it. Truth be told, he and his wife are great to hang around and party with, but I kinda feel backed into a corner here.

I think my best course of action would to be make a visit at the boss' party, dine a little there, and then go over to my old roommate's party.

sheesh, I should have booked my flight to BWI earlier!

Sounds as though T'giving dinner has become the new Office Party for you, FL Rob. Maybe you can get to your friends in time for sandwiches.

Fl Rob, I'm with you - I think you should try to do both. Since it's too late to weasel out of the boss thing you could claim other plans and get out early at least. Next year - earlier flight!

My family plays Thankful Thanksgiving BINGO! Everyone submits what they are thankful for, we create BINGO boards with these words and use dried fruits and nuts as markers.

Our Thanksgiving tradition growing up was to watch the Macy's parade in the morning and then go to my Grandmother's for dinner.

When my kids were little, we watched the parade and then, after dinner was cleared, we'd sit down and watch Miracle or 34th Street.

I pretty much skip the parade now since it just isn't the same, but I always watch Miracle or 34th Street on Thanksgiving,

To take me through the holiday season, I watch It's a Wonderful Life sometime between Thanksgiving & Christmas and I watch A Christmas Carol (the Alastair Sim version only).

I always say I'm going to go to The Senator to watch the last two for their special showing/food drive, but I always end up having other obligations on the day they pick. I'd love to see them on that screen.

Joyce and Eve,

Thanks for responding. Yes, I will book that flight plenty early next year.

PCB Rob,

For the record, I find one hour/one drink to be acceptable for stopping by a party. (Hopefully that gets you on to your old roommate's party faster.)

Oh and take them a bottle of wine. Then they'll just remember that, not the fact that you left early. Put it in one of those fancy bags/boxes (cheap at Walmart) and you're golden.

And tell them it's you great-aunt millie's dinner that you have to go to after, not a friend's house.

Can you tell I've done this before??

;)

Carey,

Thanks for the good tips!

The great-aunt-millie's thing won't work because they know I have no local relatives.

Its a dinner party (starts at 2 though-sounds more like a late lunch) so I'll probably show up about 1-ish with that wine (good idea!), eat a little at the meal and then remind them that I had a prior engagement.

Speaking of pies, has anyone tried the America's Test Kitchen pie crust that uses vodka?

My cheesecakes, cakes, and pastries are wonderful, but I am pie crust challenged and usually use the Pillsbury rolled out dough.

Rosebud, I'm pie crust challanged too. I haven't yet, but I plan to try Emeril's pie crust recipe where he uses the food processor adding cold water by the tsp til the pastry just forms a ball. He then takes it out and wraps it in plastic and refrigerates. He claims cold chopped up butter is the path to success. If I can actually roll it out at that point I may be on to something! I will report back! BTW, those people in the Pie Challange just totally get my goat! What with them rolling out and throwing around all those pie crusts like it's no big deal! hmmmph. I KNOW I can do this!

Rosebud, I haven't yet tried the vodka pie crust, but I'm probably going to this evening.

ATK has a show where they made a pie. As I recall, the 'secret' they discovered was to have the dough much wetter than 'normal'. Check the web site, they may have the details there.

RtSO - I'm going to check what they say on ATK. That conclusion goes against everything I've heard so far about good pie dough, but it doesn't surprise me. Maybe I'll do a side by side challenge ATK vs Emeril!

Joyce, the dough was wetter than normal, but half the liquid was vodka instead of water. The theory being that gluten develops in water, but not in alcohol (or something like that).

Also, I think they said that the vodka "bakes away" and leaves the crust less wet and more flaky when baked.

Hal - let me know if this is worth trying and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I have to go see if my dough has risen enough to shape into rolls. I'm lucky to just have to make rolls and desserts for dinner today. We're going to George's parents' house.

Ok - made the Emeril dough and it came out perfectly. ATK remains unknown unless I find a store that's open (and I haven't started drinking) so I'll report back on that when I can - but the Emeril basic recipe - simple and works! Gotta love that big 12 qt paper weight in my kitchen (the food processor) at last!

HAPPY TG EVERYBODY!

Joyce, the vodka pie dough was from last year, so you may have trouble finding that issue in the store. I got it from the Cooks Illustrated website, but you have to have a web subscription to get to it. When I get time I'll type up a synopsis of it and post it here, but that won't be soon. I hear our guest arriving now...

The ATK/Cooks Illustrated vodka pie crust recipe is available for free online at this link.

Rosebud, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ain't what it used to be ... BUT ...

My DW and I were in new York from last Sunday through yesterday afternoon. Our hotel was swarming with cheerleaders and dancers from around the country with red Parade jackets having the time of their lives. Waiting in line for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, we talked with two women and their daughters up from South Carolina to be in the parade. When I stopped and asked some people wearing "Bowie" sweatshirts if they were from Maryland, they said they were from Texas. While having breakfast yesterday we saw members of the Georgia Tech Marching Band walk by to practice. Seeing and talking to all these people from all over the country and seeing how proud they (and their parents) were and the sacrifices they had to make in this economy just to get there made watching the Parade this morning a lot more interesting. Its much more fun when you can say "I know those people."

Hope everybody is having a Happy Thanksving.

RiE - that's what the real parade is about. Thanks for sharing your experience.