Thanksgiving dinner 2020 - Page 7

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

@Porcelain wrote:
I have some family members who are really pushing to visit for Thanksgiving. They're saying they'll stay in a hotel and we can distance etc...I just don't know. I trust them to keep their word and I hate to say no to them. They would be coming from a big cluster area, but have been very responsible in staying safe.

(We would also have to keep their visit secret from other family members who are not being very thorough with their Covid precautions. So that would be its own mini drama/sitcom.)

When I think about all the precautions we would have to take, it just sounds miserable to me. I may ask them to wait and see and consider Christmas instead. Which, to be real, I have little confidence about either.

@Porcelain Buck up and say "No." It isn't worth the worry and if they get snippy that's on them not you. I am not one to try to dictate what others do, because at the end of the day I couldn't anyway, but I can control what I do.

So just say "No. Maybe next year." Don't apologize either--you shouldn't have to. You are being careful and that's fine in this situation. Your life, your choice!

Edited to add: I agree about Christmas. It's only a month after Thanksgiving and I doubt anything will change. I wouldn't bring that up.

KatieB · ‎03-10-2010

@Sooner wrote:
@bigtraps Aren't collards THE best? I honestly love them. I love them even if I just cook them in chicken broth!

I grew up eating turnips and turnip greens and they are awful! Then I discovered collards!

Maybe that will be Thanksgiving meal this year! Big pots of pinto beans and collards with real ham hocks! Cornbread, butter, chow chow, iced tea and a big plate! LOL!!!

I love turnips and turnip greens. cooked and served separately... The way my Mama used to cook them... Boy were they good with some cornbread.

Porcelain · ‎02-19-2014

@Sooner wrote:
@Porcelain wrote:
I have some family members who are really pushing to visit for Thanksgiving. They're saying they'll stay in a hotel and we can distance etc...I just don't know. I trust them to keep their word and I hate to say no to them. They would be coming from a big cluster area, but have been very responsible in staying safe.

(We would also have to keep their visit secret from other family members who are not being very thorough with their Covid precautions. So that would be its own mini drama/sitcom.)

When I think about all the precautions we would have to take, it just sounds miserable to me. I may ask them to wait and see and consider Christmas instead. Which, to be real, I have little confidence about either.
@Porcelain Buck up and say "No." It isn't worth the worry and if they get snippy that's on them not you. I am not one to try to dictate what others do, because at the end of the day I couldn't anyway, but I can control what I do.

So just say "No. Maybe next year." Don't apologize either--you shouldn't have to. You are being careful and that's fine in this situation. Your life, your choice!

Edited to add: I agree about Christmas. It's only a month after Thanksgiving and I doubt anything will change. I wouldn't bring that up.

You're quite right. Thank you for thinking about this too. It makes sense to not bring up Christmas as well. I'd just be setting up the same scenario all over again. Good point.

Simply not showing my usual enthusiasm to see them is a pretty strong message. But I owe it to them to be clear about things well before they're likely to start making firm plans. It's not as if this is our last chance. No one is at death's door -- but of course knock on wood and never assume.

They won't get snippy. It'd be a lot easier and I'd be a lot faster to give a hard no if they were like that. They are very sweet and just really miss DH and I, and we miss them. I do want to see them, and it's hard on me to stay away. But if anything happened to them or to us and the people we are responsible for, I would never forgive myself.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

@Porcelain Exactly! I am in the same boat with my mom who is in a nursing home and very elderly. They are in lockdown, but even if not, would I take the chance to take it to her or give it to us (we are old too).

I just don't even see a way around not going now days.

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

@bigtraps wrote:
GURL... Love me some collards ! ! !
@Sooner wrote:
@ECBG wrote:
@Sooner wrote:
Two people, no big deal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Family is long gone so it is what it is!
@Sooner I'd love to have you here, Beautiful if you can tolerate southern cooking, lol!!!

@ECBG I just picked up 2 batches of collards, Camellia pinto beans, kidney beans, large limas and black eyed peas. I have 4 bags of iced tea bags and two big bags of loose tea in my pantry.

IF I weren't trying to be healthier, I'd have smoked ham hocks. But in about 3 weeks will have a big ham.

What's your guess?????

I sure wish I COULD be there!

@Sooner I am a healthy cook. DH was this town's first angeoplasty at 34!

I make a big no hormone turkey with herb stuffing with a lot of sauteed celery and onion.

We must always have a giant pot of fresh green beans, and steamed fresh vegetables and a wonderful crustless spinach quiche with Guerier (or Haverti) cheese.

I do make pumpkin pie, but I make real whipped cream.

Your collards would be great (boy! Do the kids ever love collards!). You'll always be welcome here.

I am not one of those cooks who do dish after dish of starches, I don't care about what is "good" which is what I have been told!

Fresh veggies can't be compared with!

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

Sounds wonderful, @ECBG -- I'm hungry now!

qvcfreak · ‎03-10-2010

We’ve missed so many family holidays and we have so much to be thankful for that we are having Thanksgiving safely. We are only 4 and abiding by all Covid19 get togethers of 10 people or less.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

@ECBG Don't tell anybody because we may be the only people that think this, but mother made that green bean casserole when it first became popular and nobody liked it.

We went back to regular cooked green beans.

Your meal sounds wonderful, and yes, real whipped cream.

We make our cornbread dressing with sauteed onions and celery mixed with crumbled cornbread and Italian seasoning. We pour over that either chicken broth only or some years mix in a can of cream of chicken or mushroom soup to thicken it. (I add a short shot of sherry to jazz up the sauce some years). It is cooked in

a casserole, not the turkey.

AND we gave up on sweet potato casserole after three years in a row of the marshmallows either burning or actually being ablaze (no yule log for us--just a blazing pan of sweet potato casserole).

And people agreed they liked the baked ones better anyway--with butter--and maybe maple syrup .

Salad--which I don't see the point of at a holiday--rolls, which we forget to put on the table until we are almost finished--and cranberry sauce out of the can plus that stuff that is an orange, cranberries, a bucket of sugar ground up with nuts. I could eat a ton of that.

Then about six pies and three cakes for 6 people. That's our menu! Oh and the turkey--

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

@Sooner Hey Sweetie,

Years ago everyone made such a fuss over green bean casserole, I made it! I realized I didn't like the flavor of canned green beans!

I remade the green bean casserole with the mushroom soup but used frozen French green beans! WOW! So much fresher! That was pretty good. I think ladies back then just considered casseroles wonderful.

I had a friend who lost her retired minister husband at 85. He was lovely and always told her of the "casserole ladies" in his churches and how much he enjoyed them!

That was also the time of congealed salads!