Just the two of us, so I'll roast a bone-in turkey b r e a s t and make potatoes au gratin, sugar snap peas and fresh cranberry salad. I might splurge on some yeast rolls, too.

We've decided to make pizzas. We will be arriving in Cathedral City the Sunday (or Saturday) before TG, and so we will have the day to make whatever, and what we've decided that we like best is pizza. This will also allow us to spend minimal time shopping - all we will need to buy will be fresh Mozzarella cheese and some fresh basil.

Otherwise, we will go to Cárdenas and buy tamales and guacamole, and I would get some chicharrones for my side dish.

If I get ambitious, I will buy some king crab legs and make Crab Louis, which is my favorite thing to make for holiday dinners. I make my own traditions and am not influenced by society.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mac n cheese, green bean almondine, ham, gravy, yeast buns, butternut squash with brown sugar and pecans, and veggie tray with carrots/celery/black olives, and pumpkin pie.

I work that day but company puts on a full Thanksgiving meal for employees.

Lars, fresh mozzarella on a pizza sounds divine.

I love, love, love collard greens...but that's more of a lunch for me. I hate the canned ones. ☺ We rarely eat pasta. Never had mac 'n cheese until I left home. It's ok.

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Real mashed potatoes

Whole cranberry sauce(canned), I also put it on the dressing

Bacon/celery/onion white bread stuffing-in the turkey(home made)

turkey & gravy

Pumpkin cheese cake, whipped cream

I've made stuffing ahead of time and frozen it for a few weeks to make the day-of prep easier. I let it defrost, put it in a pan and baked it up. It was good!

Other than the turkey - prepared by the hosts - the rest of the meal is potluck so who knows what the final menu may be! I know my sister will be bringing apple pie and I will bring mashed yams with goat cheese and mushroom turnover appetizers. I can safely predict that there will be mashed potatoes, dressing(s) of some variety, very likely Brussel sprouts in some rendition and cranberry sauce. Other side dishes are TBD. Part of the family is gluten intolerant so no yeast rolls (and the dressing may or may not include bread (GF) or cornbread).

Also wine in abundance :-))

Our plans kept changing due to drama. Sigh. I will be cooking for just three of us instead of being a guest.

Will be flying in from Florida two days before so I had to plan to not have much shopping when I get back.

No turkey.

Frozen dip and appetizers from Trader Joe’s. I grabbed a cute green bean casserole in mini phyllo cups.

Will do cranberry chicken, stuffing, yams with marshmallows ( this is the must have for DH) green beans with almonds.

DH likes cheesecake, but with just three of us I might try to talk him out it saying I will make it for Christmas. I can make a pumpkin pie.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), You can still have yeast rolls. I make them with Cup4Cup GF flour mix and xanthan gum. The dough is stickier than regular rolls so I found baking them in muffin tins was helpful.

I know GF rolls are possible....just not worth the effort, IMO :-) And no need for any more carbs at an already very carb heavy meal!

Luckily I can get some marvelous pies at the local grocery chain. Hubs will be making pumpkin cheesecake, but Dad likes pecan or apple pie so I will either buy one or make one with store bought crust. Just as good as my home made crust, IMHO. They sell a fabulous strawberry rhubarb but I don't know if that is strictly seasonal. That's a pie that I have yet to really master . . . mine are too runny.

I've made Thanksgiving dinners all from scratch and I can't find a noticeable difference in quality for what my set wants, and they are so traditional that there is no sense making some gourmet home made thing. As for stuffing, I think it is just as good if not better the second day, the flavors can meld and be absorbed. I just do Stove Top. I don't like dressing anyway. The kind I like has wild rice and feta cheese so I make that another time, as a vegetarian main dish. Hubs insists on the traditional type.

I can get deli cranberry sauce/relish just as good as the kind I make. So that leaves some kind of potato, either white or sweet, which I make from scratch, and then salad and a vegetable. Often I can get good asparagus so that's a treat, and I have garden fresh frozen green beans. I can make green beans almondine if I want to get fancy.

I like the idea of mac and cheese, but both my husband and father want the most traditional meal imaginable, so I just dish it out as easy as possible. The turkey is always difficult because I like small ones for our small crowd but they are near impossible to come by locally where I live. I can't do just a breast because Dad only likes dark meat. We used to do duck in my family but hubs doesn't like that. Hubs and I do chicken, but Dad doesn't like that. So I am stuck making the smallest turkey I can find, which is usually way too big, and then freezing the leftovers. Not that bad of a problem! I also make a mean turkey soup!

Unfortunately I really dislike Thanksgiving. My family seems to use the time to feel sorry for themselves and grouse about all the things wrong with their lives, the opposite of the supposed point of the holiday. I long ago stopped celebrating these high stress Thanksgivings and Christmases. It would be nice to gather with some good friends or other family, but travel is difficult right now, and often weather is another factor here in the midwest. At some point, I'd really like to have my home more in order to serve as a gathering place but right now, it is set up to just accommodate hubs and I and the dog. It's not really a big enough house for a lot of elaborate entertaining, but at some point I would like to improve upon it, even slightly would be great, like making the screen porch an all season room . . . .it's a lot easier for me to entertain in the summer . . .

I will be at home, but I bought a turkey to make turkey and dressing, so I can seal-a-meal portions of it, besides eating some for a couple of days. I may not make it for Thanksgiving...but around that time, probably. I am also going to make some potato salad, because that is something that I like and will eat for two or three days. I don't know if I will make anything else. Maybe some green beans with bacon. I have the ingredients to make my fruitcake, which is not like regular fruitcake, and I will freeze some of that as well, because it makes a big one, and I don't want to eat it all at once, which I might do, if it is sitting around. Lastly, I have been in a cookie making mood, and I plan to make cookies between now and whenever. I made some last week but got them out of the house quickly....gave some to the guy who helps me at Tractor Supply.

This is the first time in 5 years that I've cooked Thanksgiving dinner. For 3 years prior to Covid, we took a good friend of ours out for the holiday at the Old Yarmouth Inn. Last year, everyone was in lockdown - we ordered a dinner delivered from the Barley Neck Inn for the 2 of us. It was good, with leftovers, but only white meat and the potatoes were more liquid than the gravy.

So we've invited our good friend to come to our house this year and will attempt to cook for 3. Cocktails and an old fashioned relish tray. A small (10 lb) fresh turkey, roasted. Pan gravy. Oyster bread dressing. Scalloped local turnips. Mashed roasted acorn squash. Sauce of local cranberries with orange and Grand Marnier. Creamed peas with shallots and mushrooms. Wine. Lots of wine.

Homemade pumpkin pie for dessert.

Makes me tired just thinking about it...

^^^ That sounds SO good!! If you weren't on the other side of the country, I'd invite myself over. I don't eat that much :-)

We do a herbed, dry brined and smoked Turkey breast which has the merit of keeping really well for left overs. Sides are candied sweet potatoes, home made Cranberry sauce-no skins or chunky bits, Brussels sprouts for DH, giblet gravy and cornbread dressing. For that I make turkey broth from the back of my turkey ahead and precook my chopped onions and celery eggs and so on and the cornbread and put it all together on the day and bake. I have half a German chocolate cake in the freezer for dessert. I would prefer pecan pie but I only eat one little piece and DH will love the cake.

I have most of the dinner already bought. 19 lb turkey is in the freezer.

Menu- cream cheese celery, black & green olives, turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, mushrooms, rolls, pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll. Appetizers unknown at this time.

I think this year I'm going to make turkey soup with the carcass and freeze it for the New Years Eve gang.

gardengal - I'm sure we would enjoy your company. We don't eat that much anymore, and plan to send half of the leftovers home with our friend. I do look forward to the aroma of everything cooking, the steam on the windows and setting a festive table - those things are missing when we go out for holiday meals. Bonus for us is a turkey carcass for soup.

amylou321 - Yes, dressing can be made ahead of time and it reheats well. I find it easier to make the cornbread and dry out some regular bread overnight in the oven to use in in the dressing the next day.

"I think this year I'm going to make turkey soup with the carcass..."

I've been doing that for the past several years...so good. We've been going to our DD and SIL's for several years now. They cook the turkey and always give me the carcass for soup.

This year I'm taking cranberry sauce, spinach gratin (Ina G's recipe), mashed potatoes and pies.

We haven't had "THE DAY" for quite awhile now!

Daughter's a cop and her wife is a night nurse, so they went ahead and worked the holidays and let others with kids take the time off (a few spouses threatened divorce if they didn't get the time off! ;))

Now they have the twins, but they're too young to have a clue what day it is, so again we celebrate the weekend after. No big deal.

I'm guessing about when they start school is when they will notice "the day" We still have some time!

Families can be tricky to navigate the bigger they get huh? I am the youngest of 6, and I was obviously the last one left at home, all my siblings married and having children while I was still in high school or just out of it...

While my father is much more laid back about this sort of thing, it was definitely tense with my mom negotiating who gets Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, etc with all those new SIL and DIL and their families.. I was witness to all but tried to keep out of it. I just cooked whatever day I was told to cook it on. I did make a BIG mistake one year when I gently suggested that since everyone was going to their in-laws that year for Thanksgiving day, and were coming to their house the day after, perhaps we should switch up the menu???? Maybe they don't WANT to eat a Turkey dinner twice in one week? Maybe???

When I tell you my mother warped before my very eyes into a bright red demon with the temper of t-rex with a wedgie.......

Her:" I WANT TURKEY AND ALL THE FIXINS FOR THANKSGIVING!! I DONT CARE WHAT THEY WANT!!! THEY WANTED TO SPEND THANKSGIVING WITH THEIR IN LAWS!!!! SO THEY CAN EAT WHAT WE PROVIDE!!!!!!"

Me: Okay......but

Her: NO BUTS!!! ITS TRADITION AND THATS WHAT I WANT! I AM NOT GIVING UP MY TURKEY DINNER!!!

Me" okay....................................................but I can cook a small turkey or a turkey breast with a smaller batch of the fixings for you and me and dad on Thanksgiving Day. I will be home.....'

Her: NO. We are serving a TRADITIONAL thanksgiving dinner!

Me: ok.....

Dad: comes into kitchen...whose yelling and why?

Me: Mom is mad that I suggested a different menu when everyone comes here.

Dad: No turkey?

Me: I offered to make a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving for the 3 of us. I just though everyone else might want something different the day after when they come here. So they do not all have to eat the same thing again...

Dad: OOOO! That's sounds nice! Maybe a Prime Rib?

Mom: NO

Dad: Why? Amy said she would make turkey and whatever for the 3 of us...

Mom: ITS NOT THE SAME.

Me: Why? Is it the food or is the company not enough to be thankful for? You know what? Fine. Do what you want. I will make other plans that day too since I am home all the time anyway. You can be grateful for an empty house to get ready for your "guests" and you can bark at dad all day long about how mad you are that you do not have total and complete control over your adult children's lives!

I, and I think my dad too, was pretty ticked off at this point. She was being stubborn and unreasonably angry because she was pouting. All my siblings had decide simply to rotate years, one with mom and dad, one with the in-laws. Even though they came every year, the DAY apparently was a sticking point. I was still mad on the day for the meal was. I decided to be extra petty that year and mention to all gathered about how Dad and I wanted to do a different meal but were overruled. Everyone was in agreement that it would have been nice, but the meal I cooked was really good and that were happy to be visiting. True diplomats, all of them..... I understand NOW of course, the in-laws make my mother seem like a real people pleaser......

Ha! I remember the year that it was my parents year for THE DAY. My sister and her husband had spent the entire week prior at his parents home, and did not leave until very early on THE DAY to make it to my moms in time for dinner, at his mothers insistence.... My sisters husband spent all day texting, which was very unusual for him, he is very personable and not at all rude like that normally. My sister told me that his parents had followed them (a nearly 4 hour drive), unbeknownst to them, in their RV, parked at a nearby rv park not far from my parents house, and were texting him. It was so bizarre. His mother apparently told him......."we just want to be NEAR YOU on Thanksgiving." Wow. Guilt trip much? They have another son who could not make it that year so maybe she was on the edge anyway...

Now, of course, many years later, my siblings all have school aged children, all except myself and one sister do not live locally at to my parents, so they can't really travel for one holiday when the kids do not get a long enough break to justify it. Add in to that the fact that I am the family cook for all huge get togethers, and I now work at a facility that never closes ever and sometimes I work the day of the holiday, and they have to work around me of they want my free labor.....well, it has blessedly calmed down and mellowed out. Christmas, if it is celebrated, is ALWAYS after the actual day, and Thanksgiving is a year to year decision. I never got stuck on the day. For me October until January was and is the best, most festive, most fun time of year! WHO CARES WHEN YOU EAT THE TURKEY??????

It should be fairly simple as my eldest son and his family are coming [4].

I am smoking a turkey

and we will have green bean casserole, my grandmother's family favorite scalded-milk recipe dinner rolls [lengthy process but worth it], butternut squash and maybe a dressing. And of course, deviled eggs. Might have to whip up some mac and cheese for the grands ... there will be a couple pies I'll make.

Oh and probably Linda C's cranberry jezabel.

I'll make the dinner rolls and freeze them in pie tins this week. Quick 15 minutes in the oven after breaking them out of the freezer ... the last thing in, and the first to dissapear.

King's Hawaiian rolls are very similar but I use a mix of wheat and AP flours. Usually takes 6 cups of flour and I use 4 AP and two whole wheat...

Can someone explain what ’dressing’ is? I thought it was the same as stuffing but in this thread both terms are being used. Does that mean they’re different things?

Yes, a lot of people have a thing about "The Day" which always bugs me, because there is nothing particularly special about that Thursday. One can have a lovely meal/get-together with family any time, and be grateful, with any number of menus. Once I adopted that mindset, I was so much happier. I rarely get to eat anything I like on T-day anyway, so I just smile and make whatever for my Dad and husband, who take this opportunity to be grumpy because it's not at a huge table overflowing with adoring family. That's never been my life and once I accepted that, I was very much happier on T-day and every other holiday. We don't have to live up to the Madison Avenue ideals . . . one of the best T-days I had was a menu of fresh NW coast salmon that a friend had as a gift from his family. He had to work so couldn't go with his family to visit his wife's relatives, so he invited me over for the weekend, gave me his credit card and sent me to the grocery store and said, "Get and make whatever you want." He knew I was a good cook and would enjoy cooking in peace in his big kitchen, while he could work all weekend and still eat like a king. Win win.

Floral, the difference is how the thing is cooked. Inside the bird, it is called stuffing; outside the bird - baked in a casserole - it is dressing.

Ours is cornbread dressing and it has raw eggs in it. We always make it the day before and refrigerate until the next day.

It will just be my DD, her SO and myself; but we will still roast a whole 10-14# turkey because we both have chest freezers and love the leftovers for multiple dishes, right down to the bones.

When she was little I would give a nod to what our colonist forebears might have had to eat, and so would make a cornmeal pudding for breakfast.

Now we have settled into a set menu: turkey, dressing with fresh apple, cranberries, celery, onion and sage; pan roasted vegetables (leek, brussels sprouts, fennel, parsnips, carrots, beets, and whatever else strikes our fancy); sweet potato most years, which might be roasted along with the other vegetables, or prepared in a small casserole with apples); homemade cranberry/orange sauce with just a little hot pepper; crescent rolls; and depending on my mood and other dishes, my grandmother's green beans (cooked with bacon and onions, not the (in)famous casserole - which I do like btw). Sometimes I change it up to green beans with mustard sauce.

I will have to ask if SO is accustomed to having white mashed potatoes and gravy - I can do gravy all right but rarely do; but hate to make mashed potatoes so will probably buy some from Trader Joe's if he wants it (shh, don't tell!) He is far from home, and can't travel home for the holiday.

Of course pumpkin pie, and a second, either apple or nut. The pies are an extremely important part of the menu!

Floral_UK, the terms are synonymous in my part of the country - I think the distinction may have originally be base on whether it was cooked in the bird, or separately in a pan.

I like to attend church in the AM, for it truly is a day for giving thanks to me (I have to attend a denomination not my own to do so though!) and weather permitting, it is also my tradition to go to one of our local parks for a hike through the woods and ravines.

Thanks. It’s all stuffing here, whether cooked inside or outside the bird. Dressing is something you put on a salad. Of course, we don’t have Thanksgiving.

Stuffing and dressing are not the same. Dressing is made with breads that have been dried out (usually half cornbread, half white bread) then mixed with onions, celery and held together with milk or stock. It is then thoroughly cooked in a pan.

Stuffing is what you fill a pillow or a stuffed animal with.

Well, it’ll just be DH and Myself, and our DD and her boyfriend, here from Dallas. Our daughter takes after her dad, both tolerating turkey and stuffing just one day a year, for Thanksgiving. The boyfriend and I both love turkey. And so, I’m roasting a Butterball turkey breast and instead of stuffing, I’m making my wild rice pilaf that has pine nuts and fresh cilantro in it, as everyone loves it. I make my own cranberry orange sauce/compote to go with it. Probably yams, but a more gourmet dish, as none of us care that much for the marshmallow yam dish. I have no idea yet on a veggie, but I do know we won’t be having mashed potatoes or Mac & cheese. DH, being a longtime family practice physician, has steered us away from those carbs. Good for our bodies, but I do personally love them both (LOL)! BTW, Mac & cheese has always sounded a bit strange to me as a Thanksgiving side dish. We never had it then growing up, but it sure was a much loved Friday night dinner back then! For dessert, pumpkin pie for the boyfriend and I, while DH and DD prefer apple pie.

Ahhhhh yes, the dressing vs stuffing debate. There is a difference, more than just one get stuffed in the turkey and one doesn't. We never stuffed our turkey growing up, but it was served with Stove Top stuffing. The more and more my mother lived in the south, she started calling it dressing, because she didn't stuff it in the turkey. Stove top is NOT dressing, it is stuffing, even if you do not stuff anything with it. As the years went on, she decided to get fancy and ordered me to make it with sausage and the Pepperidge farm stuffing crumbs instead of stove top. ( I have mentioned before that my mom was and is NOT a great or even good cook) That is STILL NOT DRESSING. It is sausage stuffing, even if you do not stuff it in something. It is hard to explain, as everyone has their own dressing. But I think STUFFING is bread, celery ,onion and stock with some seasoning mixed together and baked to toast it a little. Add sausage and you have sausage stuffing. Dressing is a whole other animal and is more like a bread casserole or bread pudding if one puts eggs in it (I don't in mine, though i do put stove top in). You can have eggs or not, you can have meat or not. This is mine:

A pan of cornbread (NOT SWEET) make it the day before

2 packs stove top stuffing ( i typically use one pack of savory herbs flavored and one chicken or turkey flavored)

6 biscuits crumbled

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 Can Cream of Mushroom OR Cream of Onion soup

Finely diced and sautéed (in butter) celery and onions-to taste as to amounts

3-4 bone in skin on chicken breast- these are to be roasted, cooled and shredded

Chicken Stock- 4- 6 cups

Rubbed sage

Poultry seasoning

In a huge, PINK bowl, crumble your cornbread and biscuits. Add stove top and veggies and mix to combine. Add the canned soups and cooked shredded chicken and sage and poultry seasoning and mix it all up. Add enough chicken stock to make it a little runny. IT is wetter than stuffing. You want it mushy before you bake it. It would be at this point that you would add your beaten eggs to it if you use them. Pour into a baking dish. I dot the top of mine with some butter. Bake at 375 for 45 min-1 hour.

Having vegan family members over on Thanksgiving, so they're bringing tofurkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. I'll have humus and celery sticks to nibble on while we're getting the meal ready for the table, roasted squash soup, roasted sweet potatoes with garlic and herbs, sauteed carrots, green salad with persimmons, baked apples with walnuts and ginger, and molasses-ginger cake using JustEgg, an egg substitute (a first for me). I may have wine poached pears with cinnamon sticks instead of apples -- depends on how I feel when I'm cooking/baking on Wednesday.

I'm not a big fan of turkey so I doubt if I'll have any tofurkey. I used to make a breast of turkey stuffed with olive and fig tapenade before some family members became vegan.

Just saw on "The Kitchen" today to bake your (dressing/stuffing) in a buttered bunt cake pan! Lots of crusty edges, and you can slice it for sandwiches the next day!

Some of their ideas are so-so, but every once in awhile........!

Oh my........ I have to share one of my all time favorite internet clips. It is Kalen Allen reacting to a clip of The Kitchen.

Some things are better left to the real cooks........

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, My family also calls it all stuffing. And dressing is for salads.

Oh dear, amylou, I forgot the bowl had to be pink. I do have a pink bowl, I'll dig that out.

Would it count instead if I served something in Grandma's old pink pressed glass bowls? And I do plan to bake a pie in that pink pie plate I bought recently, so double bonus? (grin)

Annie

The more pink(like love)...the better it tastes!

Have called it stuffing my whole life, whether it was stuffed into the turkey or not.

Floral asked what the difference was between dressing and stuffing and I provided it. It really doesn't make any difference what terminology we grew up with, what family members tend to call it or what region of the country we reside in or what the ingredients are, the accepted culinary definition remains the same. One is cooked inside the bird and the other is cooked outside of it. Period.

Oh all the culinary experts agree on terminology GG? That's funny. But if one doesn't care, it also doesn't matter as well. But yeah, some folks do take TG to that level of precision to argue over. And other culinary terms as well, or what is the proper way to make a dish. I find myself fairly happy celebrating TG with folks who are just happy to be together and have food to eat and a safe place to eat it. One of the best Thanksgivings I ever had was on a weekend before the "official" date, at a friends house and the turkey was a dry as dust but we all raved. Don't ask me why, but it was delicious because of the warmth of the home and the company. I once worked at a camp and dining was part of our job, and the cook served turkey every other day since we had new groups in residence that often. We all never had turkey at Thanksgiving, something others did not understand. You had to have lived it . . .

A 19lb turkey stuffed with traditional sage stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls and asked daughter in law to do some kind of sweet potato dish and a dessert. Dessert is minimal, most of us very rarely have dessert after a big Thanksgiving dinner. We will have 8 or 9 total guests for dinner. Turkey carcass goes in stockpot Thanksgiving night for turkey soup over the weekend.

We will be on a cruise on Thanksgiving, boarding the day prior. I can act stooopid and no one (other than the missus) will know who I am!

Ten years ago after 25 years of marriage, my MIL relinquished to the hosting of Thanskgiving evening. Thanksgiving evening is when my DH's family gathers to celebrate. I was thrilled to finally getting a hosting assignment. Well it didn't last long. DH's nephews both got married and their wives decided they would not attend. Then they started pressuring my SIL and inlaws to come to their houses for Thanksgiving. As a result, the last few years I have not hosted DH's family.

I have always hosted a noon Thanksgiving meal for my immediate and extended family. Now I have no remaining extended family so we host our immediate family and friends.

The sad part is my mother and father in law are in their 90's and do not want to travel to the nephew's homes for dinner. Now with COVID, they refuse to leave home anyway. Last year and again this year, I will be cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for them and DH will delliver it to them at noon so they can celebrate Thanksgiving. I will again host our family and friends with a Thanksgiving meal at 1 pm.

Menu is pretty standard:

Roast Turkey with Giblet Pan Gravy

Suasage Vegetable Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Peas

Roasted Acorn Squash

Mashed Rutabaga

Pecan Rolls

Apple Pie

We're going to my DH's ex's and her husband's house for dinner, per usual (20 years). There will be about 20 - 26 of us - all his side (mine live on the other end of the country except DS in GA). They serve a really nice turkey, but also dump -from-a-bag stuffing mix, plopped canned cranberry sauce, and their adult children will bring instant mashed potatoes, canned gravy, bag salad, "brown 'n serve" rolls and some icky baked-in-store cake with inedible frosting.

The youngest grand (17) will make green bean casserole for her grandpa (because I refuse to make it, hate it) as she has been doing for 5 years! Bless her. But I do think it is the only thing she actually cooks. Her mom is big on take-out, drive-thru, and pizza delivery.

The other four 20 yr-old-ish grandchildren (who I've been coaching) are bringing homemade bread, apple sauce from 4 kinds of apples, baked butternut squash with honey and sweet spices, mixed lettuces and strawberries with celery seed dressing, and from-scratch brownies. So proud of them.

I like to shake things up for appetizers so I'll bring oven baked veggie egg rolls with my own Chinese-style hot mustard and apricot duck sauce, deviled egg salad in quartered potato buns, stuffed mini sweet peppers (with herbed cheese), homemade crackers with pepperoncini cream cheese dip, and everything (like on a bagel) dip to eat with mini cukes, radishes, cherry tomatoes and celery sticks, and some deli ham rolled up with Swiss cheese and a bit of spicy brown mustard for those of us who don't like turkey, plus apple slab pie with drizzle and pecan pie bars on shortbread crust.

I always bring plastic bags for the family to take home "leftovers" since no one seems to remember from the last time, or they just expect me to? I also bring our own silverware because ex- hasn't figured out that it is impossible to cut turkey with plastic knives and eat with plastic forks. I also bring a couple of extra knives for whomever else has a problem. You'd think after 20 years she'd go to Goodwill and pick up some 25c silverware - maybe $15 worth. I don't say anything but DH always rolls his eyes at me. If I went to Goodwill and got some I would be ostracized for life. Bad enough that I bring a few extra pieces. I'm rolling my eyes now. I may hint to the grands that it might be a really really nice gift for their other grandma. But then again....