Wow, when it rains, it pours! I'm glad your husband is able to do the repairs, I'm sure a plumber would be impossible to find. I just heard yesterday that Black Friday is Plumbers' Day-their busiest day of the year. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it does make sense. Sounds like a huge fix, hope it goes well.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Moosemac, you are strong! I'm so glad you and your much-loved one (he's much more than a DH) are able to see the bright side of things. Hopefully you have freezer room for the casseroles, etc?

What shocked me is that no one stepped up to the plate.....especially since the food is prepared and ready. Make the most of today with just the two of you and the heck with everyone else!

Oh.................... that's too bad

"Major holiday, major appliance" used to be our refrain, and if it wasn't a flooded basement, broken furnace or a clogged pipe, one of the kids was terribly sick.

Having a water heater, well tank and sump cistern in the basement still makes me cringe around holidays.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving.

I thought the title of the post was an exaggeration, it wasn't, lol..... enjoy your day, you have the right attitude !!!!

Oh dear...A memorable one. Ya do have to just sit and laugh/cry. Obviously the two of you are the host type and can relax, brush it off, and move on to a back-up plan....just wish one of your guests could jump in and do the same.

I do understand how much rush work that would be to welcome so many into an un-preparred home. Maybe much of the meal can be salvaged/frozen/fridged and have a 'left-over' less formal gathering Saturday. Turkey sandwiches with all the sides.

We cancelled ours a month ago, then last weekend one plan with friends as it was work/weather dependent, then aborted another plan just this past tuesday morning...hours before picking up the bird. Such a great market. We requested the smallest Turkey they had and ended up with a gorgeous 9lb D'Artagnan at the same reserved price.

The elevator at work broke last night...a big deal in Manhattan, lol. Not funny at the time having to discuss a plan for Monday morning when we all just wanted to get home to our families and not think about work for a few days. Got home late, 11pm, excited to start some last minute prepping/chopping and no celery. Now just the two of use and no stress. DH did all the shopping lists...forgot one. Minor troubles...he just now went out to the local market for missing items.

Thank you all for the support. One turkey is in the oven. I actually have 2 - 20+lb fresh turkeys this year instead of one 40+ lb. Thank goodness! I will freeze what I can. The kids will be by for turkey so that will handle some. DD did offer to host BUT her apartment is tiny, she just moved and hasn't finished unpacking and she is 7+ months pregnant with our first grandchild plus she works 60 hours/week so I said thanks but no. I can't imagine where she would have fit everyone!

IF we can get everything straightened out, I might have something Sunday. We shall see. It's for my in-laws. DH's parents are almost 90. They are headed to the nephew's today. They usually come here in the evening with the rest of the clan. As for DH and I, we are fine with realxing today.

We live in the country so we have had our share of party interruptions inc. no power no toilets, fallen trees blocking the road, well level low because of the drought, early or late seson snowstorms, etc. We just roll with the punches. We got a generator to handle the well pump and lights, woodstove to heat and cook on, drilled a deeper well, etc. but sometimes the powers that be have a sense of humor and want to test us. LOL

No power is a too frequent occurrence in my area to delay/cancel Thanksgiving. We tend to get a lot of winter storms at his time of year, including windstorms, that can affect power in more rural areas, less so in more urban locations. A few years ago we had a major early snowstorm (and severe cold) that hit just two days before T'day, taking down trees and powerlines and there was no power in my area for 4 days!! Needless to say, dinner was NOT served on the day in question!

Some folks around here have gotten quite adept at cooking a turkey on the BBQ or in a smoker when the electricity fails :-)

This year it is just wet.

Look at it this way. This is so much better than having the power go out (for the next day or so) when the turkey is half done in an electric oven and the guests are on their way. Can you BBQ a half done turkey? Guessing that's iffy. It happened to DD's in-laws one year.

Enjoy your day. Not what you planned on, but, hey, health and happiness.

Well maybe it isn't canceled, just postponed? That is terrible that had to happen and right at Thanksgiving! You are fortunate to have a hubby that will get up and help you with Thanksgiving. That sure never happened around here! I hope you get your plumbing all taken care of and it won't cost and arm and a leg. I am fortunate that son and sons in law could take care of most problems like that for me, should it happen. Happy Thanksgiving.

Sue

As long as everyone is healthy and safe, that's a lot to be thankful for.

Typically restaurants are not that busy on TG, would it have been possible to take all the food to a restaurant and have them cook everything for you?

dcarch

Congrats on finding the silver lining. I remember the year my mother had to call for emergency drain cleaning onThanksgiving. What a mess, only made worse by my brother taking the sink apart thinking he could fix it. Um, no. In the end all was well except my poor frazzled mother.

Enjoy your relaxing day and leisurely cooking!

That's a great thing to be thankful for. :)

Shocking no one volunteered! Must be some really poor housekeepers who couldn't have people at their house with you providing the food!

Several years ago on the day before Thanksgiving, raw sewage spewed up out if the basement floor drain due to a clog. Plumbers got here right away so Thanksgiving was "saved". Always something...

Oh, moosemac, that is just terrible. But you know, your attitude after the shock was great. Wasn't it wonderful to just sit back with your coffee this morning and relax? This is the first Thanksgiving I've been able to do this and the feeling was great. I was even able to take the time and think of all the things I'm grateful for. Even got to watch the Macy's parade and the dog show. Hope the rest of your day was enjoyable.

Madonna

I think it is wonderful that you can relax and count your blessings. I hope your plumbing problems get fixed pronto and maybe you can salvage some of the meal you had planned!

Moosemac, the timing is always bad, but that timing was truly horrendous. Here I'm lucky enough to live next to the Township Hall, which residents can rent for $25 and it has a kitchen and bathrooms. I'd have been able to just move it into the Townhall if I had to.

And, of course, there are only 10 of us this year, maybe 11, and that's a whole lot easier than 38!

Happy Thanksgiving anyway.

Annie

I suppose that left a lot of people without any dinner !!! You've taken it all very well!

Islay,

No one went hungry. Our friends that usually come at noon were fine with it as I gave them notice the day before. My in-laws usually eat twice on T-giving, once at the nephew's house and then at my house so they just hung out a the nephew's.

I tried to get the town hall so I could host but alas it was already booked. It would have been great as it is only a mile from my house and has a full kitchen. Every local hall was taken and since no one volunteered to host even if I supplied all the food cooked, I had no choice but to cancel. I only had one guest that missed Thanksgiving, my stepson. We offered to have him come over and join us but he decided since the rest of the family was not there that he would pass. We i.e. DH, DD and the two DS's ate on paper plates using plastic utensils. Pots and pans are stacked everywhere waiting for a fix. Kitchen sink is disassembled, etc. Well you get the picture.

We had a good laugh. After all, it will be a good story for the future! DD's SO came by in the evening and had dessert with us. We watched football and DS and I enjoyed a nice bottle of Iron Horse Un-oaked Chardonnay 2014. Not expensive but a nice drinkable wine always make things seem better. LOL

Your daughter's baby bump is the quid pro quo for the current bump in the road.

Congratulations on the first grandchild!

Great attitude to have, by the way. And, of course, a little wine will hopefully play dual purpose here.

Sol

So much seems to happen around Thanksgiving time. For us this year, the water heater went out, and so today we have no hot water (except in the hot tub), but a water heater repairman/installer is coming by at 3:00 PM to repair it or replace it. I'm not sure which I want to do, but I want it to happen soon!

One year when I was visiting Bernard and his brother in Sonoma County for Thanksgiving, I came down with appendicitis on Thanksgiving day, right after dinner. Bernard's brother Daniel (with whom I previously lived in San Francisco) had Norman Mailer's book on Marilyn Monroe, and so I checked one of the photos in the book so see where her appendix scar was, and at that point, I realized I had appendicitis. Daniel then took me to the Kaiser Hospital in Sonoma (it was the closest one), and while they were not on my insurance list, they refused to allow me to leave and did an emergency operation that evening. They said that if I waited a day, it could have killed me. My insurance only paid 60% of the hospital bill, but if it had been a participating hospital, it would have paid 80%. Kaiser prefers people to use Kaiser insurance, and so I will never go there again. I was in the hospital for five days, but the good thing about being in a hospital in Sonoma is that they have a good wine list and good food.

Lars, the hospital had a wine list? The small local hospitals here have improved their food, it's gone from abysmal to just very, very bad!

Moosemac, you have Town Halls for rent there too? I thought that might just be a local/rural backwoods Michigan thing. But, it's clear that you were not supposed to host Thanksgiving this year, and you got to just sit with a glass of wine instead of worrying about those 38 people, so maybe it's actually something to be thankful for! I think if the hall weren't available, I'd have no option other than to cancel either, neither of my girls has a place big enough to hold the whole family and my 82 year old mother gets lost every time she tries to drive to Ashley's, plus it's over 100 miles round trip for her, she always has to ride with me.

And extra pie for you, how could that be a bad thing? (grin) I'd never get extra pie, my Mother would come and get it!

Annie

I'm glad you canceled it and glad you could laugh about it. A little fart in the cocktail party of life is no big deal. Kudos to volunteering with a small apartment and being pregnant on top of it. There's some good left in this world. The rest? Let 'em eat TV dinners.

Annie, Sonoma is in the heart of Northern California wine country and has some of the best wineries in California, and so wine is everywhere there. All of the wine offered at the hospital was local, and they had some really good Chardonnay.

As a side note for cancelled Thanksgiving - Bernard and Daniel's sister died the day after Thanksgiving - I did not even know that she had been ill. She must have had a heart attack or something like that. Kevin found out from her facebook page, but we have not heard from Bernard, and he was at our house just three weeks ago doing landscaping for us and gave us no clue that his sister was ailing. She called twice while he was visiting.

Count your blessings if all that happened was a cancelled dinner! I am personally happy that the worst of our experience was 2-3 days without hot water. We got our new water heater installed Sunday morning and probably overpaid for it, but it was just one of those things. After Northridge, I was without gas and electricity for three days, and so that was a worse disaster. I guess all disasters are relative, but the one you are experiencing at the moment of course gets the most attention. If your family is safe and together, then you have something to be thankful for. I'm trying to put a positive spin on this and not succeeding very well!