Wisconsin: What Are Your Plans For Thanksgiving This Year?

[dgridley]

Planning anything special for Thanksgiving this year?

My neighbor and I will be sharing dinner, most likely at her place.. nothing special. In fact, we'll most likely have turkey loaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, cranberry sauce.. no sense in preparing a whole turkey for two people.

Having a big dinner where you are?

[dgridley]

Can't miss the parade either.. love to watch a good parade!

[CindyLouWho]

Yup...we're having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner here. It's my turn to hostess this year and I always make a turkey with all the trimmings and everyone else brings a dish that I asked them to make ahead of time. We always hold our holiday gatherings on Saturday though. That way everyone can make it and no one has to travel on the holiday when the traffic is so crazy.

I might add that on Thanksgiving day I will be making tacos for dinner for my immediate family. I'm not about to make turkey twice in one week. We always spend the day playing cards or board games and watching movies.

[dgridley]

I love tacos.. one of the things I miss about Misty.. she made some pretty good tacos, just didn't like cleaning up the kitchen after.

Originally Posted by CindyLouWho

Yup...we're having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner here. It's my turn to hostess this year and I always make a turkey with all the trimmings and everyone else brings a dish that I asked them to make ahead of time. We always hold our holiday gatherings on Saturday though. That way everyone can make it and no one has to travel on the holiday when the traffic is so crazy.

I might add that on Thanksgiving day I will be making tacos for dinner for my immediate family. I'm not about to make turkey twice in one week. We always spend the day playing cards or board games and watching movies.

[Blue Baboon]

This year is going to be kind of depressing since hubby will still be in the hospital. My parents will probably not have a dinner since we can't be there. I don't feel like going to hubby's family's dinner by myself and all they'll be doing is bombarding me with a million questions. Plus, the food isn't so hot on his side.

I see they have a dinner at the rehab center. I bet that's pretty exciting. (sarcasm) Might taste better than his family's cooking so that might be a better meal.

[dgridley]

Sorry to hear your holiday will be spoiled but at least you can be thankful hubby is still around.. next holiday you spend together will be all that much sweeter.

Originally Posted by Blue Baboon

This year is going to be kind of depressing since hubby will still be in the hospital. My parents will probably not have a dinner since we can't be there. I don't feel like going to hubby's family's dinner by myself and all they'll be doing is bombarding me with a million questions. Plus, the food isn't so hot on his side.

I see they have a dinner at the rehab center. I bet that's pretty exciting. (sarcasm) Might taste better than his family's cooking so that might be a better meal.

[pk]

I see they have a dinner at the rehab center. I bet that's pretty exciting. (sarcasm) Might taste better than his family's cooking so that might be a better meal.

Well, sometimes it's not the food but the fact that you get to be with someone you love. Whether it's in a hospital or at home. Maybe they will let you bring in something like a couple pieces of home made pie for you and your husband after the dinner?

Not to diminish how you are feeling but I do have to say 7 years ago my Mom passed away after a long illness. It was just a few days before Thanksgiving. No one could even face making a large meal on Thanksgiving so we all went out to a restaurant. We could not find anywhere that was actually open on Thanksgiving evening until we ended up at a 24 hour place. The food wasn't very good, and we didn't have my Mom, or home cooking but we were still together when we ate something and for that I was thankful.

Last year my husband was in Iraq, another strange Thanksgiving meal without one of our family members at the table and there was nothing we could do about it. We did make a huge meal but had to sit and notice the second empty chair. I would love to have ate in a hospital dining room with either my Mom or my husband if it meant sharing with them.

Anyways, maybe you can buy a small Turkey or Turkey breast and keep it in the freezer and when he gets home you can celebrate with a meal for just the two of you. Who says it has to be just on that day. Just postpone it and save it until he can be with you.

[pk]

This morning I just bought one of the two turkeys that I will be making. This big guy is just under 25 pounds! The next one will be around 16-18 pounds. Everyone is meeting at my daughters where we will eat Turkey and all the trimmings until we are sooo full! Then we all will split the food and have left overs for the week. Oh how I long Thanksgiving leftovers!

[Blue Baboon]

I think the thing that makes it harder is knowing that everyone else gets to enjoy their holiday and go about their lives and ours is on hold. This is also driving me nuts with not being able to go out anywhere for a while and seeing all my friends going to see bands. I feel so trapped here. All the things that were fun are taken away from me.

Yes, I know my husband is here alive, but he's not really here most of the time mentally. It's like being with a stranger a lot. We haven't had a good conversation since this happened. Haven't had much of a conversation at all for a while.

[pk]

Yes, I know my husband is here alive, but he's not really here most of the time mentally. It's like being with a stranger a lot. We haven't had a good conversation since this happened. Haven't had much of a conversation at all for a while.

I think when a loved one is in the hospital there isn't just one patient, there are more when you take in the spouse as you are, or a family like in our situation when my mom was in the hospital.

It's like you suddenly have become ill too but yet you don't get any attention or medicine to make it all better. Sounds strange but it's a terrible feeling.

After my Mom's stroke and she was put in a nursing home she was asked who her kids were, (she had 4). She named them all except she looked at me and said she didn't know me. Wow, what a blow that was when I was her youngest and felt we had a great connection. It took awhile before I think she actually knew me again. Conversations were very limited and later when she was in the process of dying, conversations were none. She was basically a stranger to us yet she had such a strong presence of herself there too. Hard to explain. The point being is it is difficult to see someone you love not be what you need him/her to be. It certainly becomes very lonely like you lost your best friend, yet they are right there. But in your case your husband will be coming home so keep the faith he will be all better soon and you two can go back out again.

It is hard and I think one time when my husband took me out of the hospital and we were driving by the movies and he asked if I wanted to stop and see a movie was one of the times that I could get my mind off for awhile. It was a long movie and I needed that.

Maybe you could find a friend and go out even if it's just for awhile. It would be good for you. You need to take care of yourself too. And don't feel guilty if you do decide to go out for awhile. You need to maintain who you are so you can be what he needs if that makes sense.

Good luck.

[dgridley]

How many will be eating out vs eating at home this Thanksgiving?

I will most likely be eating at a neighbor's this year but have eaten at Sirloin Stockade and Cracker Barrel other years.

[pk]

Thanks Dave for bringing this back on topic. I think I was sidetracked and thought when I posted last few times that I was in the chit chat topic.

Anyways, we have a huge meal each year with me doing up 2 turkeys. This year one almost 25 pounds and the other is 18. I then bring one over to my daughter's where she is doing most of the side dishes. (we keep the other one here for leftovers for the week!). I'll also be doing pumpkin pies and a few other things. Anyways, in the end we will actually have the meal at her house with everyone bringing home some leftovers.

[dgridley]

I love to hear about families and friends being able to come together over a fine meal at Thanksgiving!

Originally Posted by pk

Thanks Dave for bringing this back on topic. I think I was sidetracked and thought when I posted last few times that I was in the chit chat topic.

Anyways, we have a huge meal each year with me doing up 2 turkeys. This year one almost 25 pounds and the other is 18. I then bring one over to my daughter's where she is doing most of the side dishes. (we keep the other one here for leftovers for the week!). I'll also be doing pumpkin pies and a few other things. Anyways, in the end we will actually have the meal at her house with everyone bringing home some leftovers.

[pk]

Yes, it's great until days later when all the left overs are gone and we all tip the scales many pounds heavier!! lol And I can just hear the turkey's laughing at us with their final revenge.