1. Do you have any special traditions you always do on Thanksgiving? * We always get up and turn on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv. I've watched it every year since I was a kid and love it. For me, (and now my family, too) it's the "official" start of our Thanksgiving and the holiday season. We watch it as we get our special T'Day family breakfast ready and, afterwards, while we get our part of the meal ready to take down to our friend's home for Tday dinner. As we make our breakfast together, we always toast the day with eggnog, another big tradition. 2, What special foods do you serve? * Our Thanksgiving Day dinner is always the same and we love it. Turkey with Oyster Stuffing; mashed potatoes & gravy; homemade (awesome, yeasty!) crescent rolls; candied yams; my cranberry orange relish; a fresh veggie tray with homemade Ranch dip & a cheese tray, as appetizers; condiment tray with various olives, pickles, etc; Caesar salad with Mandarin orange sections; pumpkin and pecan pies; mulled apple cider; wines and coffee. I've probably left something out, but that's basically been our dinner for the past 20-plus years. Gosh, I love this meal! All of the above are made from scratch by us, too. My friend is a home ec teacher and an incredible cook. 3, Do you still serve the dish people inwardly groan when they see, whether it is green bean casserole,candied yams, or something else, because "it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it"? * Nope, we all seem to love everything on our menu. 4. Do your family and guests dress up, or wear jeans? *We wear dressy casual clothes. 5. Visit, watch tv, go hunting (critters or retail goodies), what do you do in the afternoon? * We visit. The guys watch some of the football game(s). In the evening we sometimes play "Catch Phrase" or "Apples to Apples" 6. Host or guest? * Guest, as we host Christmas. These are our best friends and neither of us have any family here in state. But, this year both their kids are living in the Dallas area and their daughter and fiancee have bought a (huge) new home. They can't make it here and invited all of us to come and celebrate Thanksgiving there with them. We told our friends to go, but we aren't going ourselves. It's flu season and DH doesn't want to take more than Thursday thru Sunday off away from his patients. And, he HATES, HATES, HATES the thought of half of those days off being taken up with traveling on the two busiest/worst travel days of the year. (Sigh) So, we're celebrating by ourselves at home for the first time. It'll be festive, but different for us. 7. Do you eat at noon or dinner? * At our friends' home we eat around 2PM and then have a supper of the yummy leftovers around 7PM, but this year ~by ourselves~ we'll probably eat around 6PM and save our leftovers for the next day's dinner. 8. Do you have overnight house guests? *No Lynn

For over 20 years we have been having a nice little party. Started the first year we were married, and none of our friends were. All of us right out of school and no money to go out to the big scene. We used our silver wedding dishes and leftover napkins from the reception. Had a really fun time. Then in our first house we would have the babies asleep, and people could bring their kids and playpens. Low key fun with friends. Onto the house we raised our kids in. Everyone could bring their kids to the party, so no one had to pay for a babysitter. Somehow the kids all played together famously, and managed to stay up past midnight and be a delight. Everyone brought an appetizer to share, so it was a casual party and not much work since the house was already deep cleaned from the holidays. This is the first year in our new (empty nest) house. Our kids are in college, and they are still coming to the party, except now they are all old enough to take part fully. When we told our friends we were moving, usually the first thing they wanted to know was if we still planned to have our new years eve party. It has become a really nice tradition. I think that us and all of our friends like to get together, not spend any money, and not shout over a loud bar scene. It is really a nice time. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone else might want to start a nice little tradition like this too.

Christmas gift-giving within our family is minimal so our first tradition starts a couple of days before Thanksgiving, when all of our family members go out and buy $20 worth of $1 holiday or winter themed scratch-off lottery tickets. Our gift to ourselves is seeing surprised and then mostly smiling faces when we give them away to a clerk at the supermarket, a woman with a whining child, or whenever the mood strikes us. We usually have refill our pocket as the month progresses and itÂs amazing to see the power that a dollar can still have. On Christmas Eve, we usually have beef or cheese fondue or both and then attend a church service. Most years, DH was singing in the choir. Starting when our children were young, Santa never put presents under the tree. Instead, theyÂd open their Christmas stockings and in the bottom was a clue to find the first gift. TheyÂd bring it into the living room and open it. On the back was another clue to find the next gift. As they got older, the clues got harder, sometimes involving going outside. It slowed down the pace of Christmas morning and seemed to make them stop and appreciate the gifts they received, instead of having a frenzy of unwrapping. This tradition continued when grandchildren came along and what they all remember and talk about most was the scavenger hunts themselves instead of the gifts. I think thatÂs why we just do small or handmade gifts now. Another family tradition is NOT to cook a sit-down Christmas dinner. When I was growing up, my parents always had an extended Open House on Christmas Eve and added a few hot items to the buffet for Christmas Day. Most things were made ahead of time so it was always a relaxing day with people dropping in as their schedules permitted. Soon after we were married, DH and I began hosting a Christmas Day brunch from about 10 to 3 and a buffet of homemade soups, breads and cookies on Christmas evening. Chicken-rice-leek is the one that always has to be on the menu. Both DH and my parents are now deceased, as are all of our aunts and uncles except for the two we visited at Thanksgiving. Our children and GCs are scattered about the country so sometimes even when they were at home, weÂve done different things on Christmas, like serving Christmas dinner trays to hospital patients so more of the food service workers could spend Christmas with their families or shuttling truckers who had to spend the holiday at a truck drop to a Christmas dinner. Last year, we went to FL and spent the holiday at SD & SILÂs, cooking a Dickensonian goose on Christmas Eve and learning salsa dancing at their South American neighborÂs holiday celebration next door. This year, DD will be here for her last Christmas before reporting to the Army and her only requests were no gifts, saving a tree for her to decorate and chicken-rice-leek soup on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Eam, beachem, cpartist, and all who gave recipes for purée ing turkey, thank you! I didn't see them till now, but I know the caregiver made purée with the leftovers. Mom's sister popped in on the way to her son's, just as we eer sitting down, so she helped Mom while DH and I oversaw things (and ate!). The carrots, Cook's Magazines boiled carrot recipe (I know, I know, who needs a recipe for boiled carrots? I do.) came out soft enough that she could manage them just fine, yet just firm enough for everyone else. I passed on the sweet potatoes, it was one too many things. I used Mom's wedding china, her gorgeous silver, and the damask napkins. She didn't recognize any of it, but it color-matched the family room where we ate better than their dining room :) Dad was in tears at the table, it was his first time home since August. The house is his baby, he designed it with an architect, his own company built it, on family land. Probably our last Thanksgiving in that house. Time for new traditions.