Thanksgiving Plans

[WindingRoad]

So I'm seriously thinking I will ride my bike to Thanksgiving. Actually it would be the day before because it's a 70 mile ride. BF is coming day of so I can put the bike in the car and ride back with him. The weather is supposed to be about 45-50 degrees. Sun will come out after 10 am, headwind about 7-10 MPH. Been wanting to do this for a while, it's through nothing but countryside.

[spokewench]

:Dgreat way to get a work out day before all that food!

[Blueberry]

Awesome! We keep wanting to do that (Bike to Thanksgiving) - but there aren't any good bike routes from here to there. We checked.

Our dinner is late enough, though, that we should be able to get a ride in before we leave - yay!!

[withm]

My trip will be 150 miles one way, with homemade pecan pie, spiced peaches, and 3 doz dinner rolls. Even if it were a short trip, keeping everything level on a bike would be a challenge.

Hope everyone has a fun Thanksgiving and safe travels.

But I'll get a ride in before I leave town. And I'll bring my bike with me so I can stop in St. Michael's for a ride along the way home.

[azfiddle]

We'll do a pre-turkey ride with our cycling group, then come home for low key dinner with our 21 year old son.

[ny biker]

Six hour drive Wednesday night, expect to arrive around 3 a.m.

Family plans Thursday and Saturday.

An even longer drive back on Monday (expecting more traffic, since it's during the day).

Hoping to get out and take a brisk walk up and down the big hill in my hometown on Friday, and again on Sunday.

My weight management challenge this week is not about food, it's about inactivity.

But it will be nice to see the family!! And I will enjoy my mother's apple pie. It's a serving of fruit!! Seriously!! She puts a ton of apples in it, real apples, with hardly any added sugar. And she slices them really fast with a paring knife that is older than I am.

[VeganBikeChick]

I'll be working this Thanksgiving, and doing my best to stay away from all the junk food at work.

[solobiker]

I'll be working this Thanksgiving, and doing my best to stay away from all the junk food at work.

Me too! Although I don't imagine there will be too much junk food around which is fine by me.

[Koronin]

We'll be watching football games. If the weather is nice enough we may take a ride around the neighborhood.

[Crankin]

I plan to take a short ride between 10 and noon, hoping of course, that the rain/sleet that is coming through Wednesday into the dawn hours of Thursday, is done and the streets are not icy. There's a spin class at 8 AM, but I really feel like I want to be outside before cooking and eating.
I plan to have everything done before my ride, starting tomorrow night. DH cooks the turkey and does the stuffing, so I just have to set the table and do 2 sides, appetizers. My friend is bringing 2 things and we are buying dessert.

[Owlie]

Provided it doesn't rain, I'm thinking of getting a short (~2hr) ride in while the turkey cooks.

[marni]

I may or may not be riding. Our oven is bust again and we're hoping to get it fixed wednesday morning. If not our fall back is to butterfly the brined turkey and do it on a barbeque grill, or since daughter is bringing a turkey frying pot, do a texas deep fried turkey outside on our camp stove. If either of these two activities is happening I shall leave himself, oldest son mathematician, his wife the linguist, quality sound assurance tech for EA (home of the sims) daughter and computer techie friend in charge and take a ride.

either way it should be an adventure.

marni

[tangentgirl]

I'm hoping to get a bike ride in, maybe I can wake up early. Dinner for six at my place, so busy! But hey a bike ride would be nice too.

I'll definitely be doing a Black Friday ride.

Marni, I've always wanted to fry a turkey. One of these years. In the meantime, Captain Kirk had some tips on deep-fried turkey safety: http://youtu.be/EYkRF_FmD40

[skhill]

My brother is hosting the meal this week, and if the weather is as nice as predicted, I'll be biking over there. It's just 3 miles, so no big deal. I'll just load up my improvised bike-mounted pie carrier, and head on over.

BTW, does anyone have a really good gluten-free pie crust recipe? I've tried a few, and they were ok but not great.

[limewave]

We do a 5k as a family every Thanksgiving. DD is only 6 so there is a lot of walking. But its a nice way to spend the morning (even though its always raining, freezing cold, and windy!). DH has to work on Friday. But we plan to do some mountain biking in hunt-free zones on Saturday!!! Weeeeeee!

[bmccasland]

Currently no plans. The joys of being single, fairly new in town, and no relatives within 1000 miles. Not that I'd actually want to spend the day with those relatives. The Norman Rockwell painting family is a myth IMHO.

[PamNY]

Beth, that's the perfect Thanksgiving.

I'm continuing my annual tradition of escaping the turkey my SO has decided MUST be cooked in my home. I don't eat meat and the smell of turkey cooking all day makes me physically ill.

The dog and I are going to the home of a sympathetic friend.

[Pax]

Beth - I envy you. As long as my mom is alive thanksgiving will consist of going to her house, eating a meal I don't care for (we don't eat much meat and never eat stuff covered in gravy/cheese/butter), and helping my mom cook and clean up for hours... all while my idiot brother lays on the couch and watches football. :mad:

[bmccasland]

But I want the Norman Rockwell family.

Holidays are something to get through. :( There's all this emphasis on "family" but when yours is disfunctional, it leaves one with very mixed feelings. Members of the club I'm a part of often refer to themselves as a "family by choice," but when the big holidays come around (Thanksgiving and Christmas), then the blood relative family is suddenly more important. Which leaves the rest of us unattached folks out in the rain.

Or maybe it's just me being hypersensative. I've always felt like the odd one out.

So my plea to y'all is, if you know a single person - at work or socially - ask them over. Don't assume that they have holiday plans - their no plan may be because they don't want to cook a big meal just for themselves, but they'd be happy to contribute a dish if they were invited. Some of my best Thanksgiving memories are from pot-luck singles/couples organized dinners. Not being forced to sit beside the cousin you never liked!

[VeganBikeChick]

I agree, Beth. If I wasn't working I'd invite everyone without family over. My best holidays have been those shared with non-family members :)

[Pax]

I agree, Beth. If I wasn't working I'd invite everyone without family over. My best holidays have been those shared with non-family members :)

Ditto. When my bio family was going through their six year phase of don't-let-the-lesbian-near-the-niece, I discovered a "family of choice" among my friends and spent the holidays with either my honey alone of with a gang of friends. It was a far better time.

Then my folks talked my brother and SIL into letting me back into our family life for their sake... now in order to please my parents (just mom now) I endure holidays sitting around with those bigots. Fun.

[PamNY]

So my plea to y'all is, if you know a single person - at work or socially - ask them over. Don't assume that they have holiday plans - their no plan may be because they don't want to cook a big meal just for themselves, but they'd be happy to contribute a dish if they were invited. Some of my best Thanksgiving memories are from pot-luck singles/couples organized dinners. Not being forced to sit beside the cousin you never liked!


I agree it's a good idea to invite people, but don't be pushy. Some people (I am one) hate being forced to follow holiday customs. My best Thanksgivings were with my friends who understood my desire to do something fun.

Super Mexican food at a dive in Queens, or Korean food followed by bowling -- those are my best Thanksgiving memories.

[bmccasland]

I agree it's a good idea to invite people, but don't be pushy. Some people (I am one) hate being forced to follow holiday customs. My best Thanksgivings were with my friends who understood my desire to do something fun.

Super Mexican food at a dive in Queens, or Korean food followed by bowling -- those are my best Thanksgiving memories.

Like Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant with my Jewish friends?!

[PamNY]

Like Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant with my Jewish friends?!

Oh, yes! Jewish Christmas is the best.

[OakLeaf]

Well, the downside of ordering a turkey from a local farmer is that she doesn't raise that many, and once she starts the chicks, they grow how big they want to before Thanksgiving week. The "small" turkey I ordered for just myself and DH is 17#. :eek: :eek: So much for my plans to spatchcock it - I don't know if they even make a pan big enough, and I certainly wouldn't have any other use for one. Looks like I'll be roasting it whole in a foil roaster again this year. :rolleyes:

[jessmarimba]

I'm not doing anything. Maybe I'll go to my favorite mtb trails and see how snowy they are & go for a ride or a hike or something.

I don't know if I'd rather spend holidays alone or with someone else's dysfunctional family...it's really a toss-up. Ended up at a college roommate's girlfriend's overly religious aunt's house one year, and I'd rather not repeat that one.

[Owlie]

Well, the downside of ordering a turkey from a local farmer is that she doesn't raise that many, and once she starts the chicks, they grow how big they want to before Thanksgiving week. The "small" turkey I ordered for just myself and DH is 17#. :eek: :eek: So much for my plans to spatchcock it - I don't know if they even make a pan big enough, and I certainly wouldn't have any other use for one. Looks like I'll be roasting it whole in a foil roaster again this year. :rolleyes:

They totally make pans big enough--we get a 20-lb turkey every year (split among four people, and for the last four years at least one other person...plus we freeze the leftovers for easy soup-making). However, if you don't regularly need to cook that much meat...

[OakLeaf]

But do you spatchcock it? You need a WHOLE lot more horizontal space for that.

A food-service-sized baking sheet would be big enough, but I'm not sure one would fit in my oven, and I know I'm not buying one. :p

[indysteel]

Ditto. When my bio family was going through their six year phase of don't-let-the-lesbian-near-the-niece, I discovered a "family of choice" among my friends and spent the holidays with either my honey alone of with a gang of friends. It was a far better time.

Then my folks talked my brother and SIL into letting me back into our family life for their sake... now in order to please my parents (just mom now) I endure holidays sitting around with those bigots. Fun.

This makes me sad. Pax, I would be thrilled to have you as a sister.

@ Beth, I feel for you. I may be married now, but after many years of being single and dealing with my cr*ppy family, I struggled with the holidays. Even with DH, I have a hard time. Now I get to deal with his family, too. Yay!!! On that cheery note, everyone have a happy and safe holiday!

[MojoGrrl]

We're doing a 200k the day after Thanksgiving, with a fair amount of climbing. I hope I can stay warm enough - went for a training ride today, thought I dressed warmly, and I didn't really *feel* cold, but I noticed I was a lot sorer than usual, which happened to me last weekend after running in almost-freezing cold. My boyfriend uses this warming embrocation stuff and I think I might have to try it.

[Owlie]

But do you spatchcock it? You need a WHOLE lot more horizontal space for that.

A food-service-sized baking sheet would be big enough, but I'm not sure one would fit in my oven, and I know I'm not buying one. :p

Yeah, spatchcocking a turkey of that size would probably require more space than would fit in our oven. We just roast the thing whole.

[redrhodie]

DBF and my best friend are cooking, and my brother is coming over, so just 4 of us. I'm looking forward to it. We have really great vegetarian food, and I can stay in my pj's (or is it pjs :rolleyes:) if I want to.

[Giulianna23]

We are meeting at my oldest brother house like every year. I will try to stick with the healthy stuff.

It looks like its going to be above 50 degrees after mid morning tomorrow so If so..I will be riding my bike before noon . Maybe 10-15 miles to get my workout for the day. Don't know if I should go to the Monon or stay around my area..I believe the traffic will be very light at that time so I may stay around my neighborhood. I have some backroads that are pretty quiet on the Holidays.

[owlice]

bmccasland, be patient with yourself as you figure out how to redo your holidays (and you will figure out how to redo them to suit you, I promise!).

My Thanksgiving holiday tradition has evolved to be a several-hour bike ride, followed (sometimes) by a steak dinner (filet mignon, grilled mushrooms, asparagus, Béarnaise sauce, salad, and a baked potato, and oh, yes, I use the Béarnaise sauce on everthing except the salad!) with red wine. This meal is easy and comparatively quick to cook, so I'm not spending all day in the kitchen, and it's a meal I really really really like. (I usually make it just for holidays.) And after dinner, I do a ton of online Christmas shopping!

I look forward to this! My exH#1 (yes, yes, I get to number them now) has a family that cherishes the Big Family Dinner, so for Thanksgiving, even if it's my turn to have the kid with me, I think it's good for the kid to go to those Big Family Dinners. The kid and I will have our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday; I'm not cooking tomorrow. It's taken some years for my tradition to evolve, and sometimes I do do something different (volunteer somewhere, go to a friend's), but now this is what I usually do.

(My attitude is that my happiness is up to me. On my most recent birthday I felt pretty sad, I went out and bought Georgetown Cupcakes, called a 20-minute unit meeting, asked people to bring their own napkins, and we sat around eating cupcakes, my treat. Best meeting ever, and it completely turned my day around! I now have these meetings every four-six weeks. :D)

[7rider]

Another one with no family in the area - and we'll be driving north to visit them for Christmas. So, Thanksgiving will be just DH and me. Hope to get out for a run in the a.m., and/or a bike ride.

I braved a grocery store tonight, now that we're confirmed as solo for the holiday. I bought the smallest (11#) "free range" fresh turkey the local store had, and cut it in half. Half is in a pan in the fridge for tomorrow. Half went in the freezer for another day. Plans are for a fire (if it's cold enough), a bottle of wine, turkey, sweet potato (yes...one will do fine for the 2 of us), and green beans. Even got this tiny little caramel apple pie. ;) They didn't have half pies (I prefer pumpkin...DH goes for pecan), and the only slices were of cheesecake - which I would've been all over, but I don't think DH likes 'em, and I couldn't justify all four of them.

[Catrin]

I typically have Thanksgiving dinner at a friends house from church and will be doing so tomorrow. I take beer to share, so that even fits in with our TE Beer Fest!

I also hope to ride tomorrow, outside, for the first time in almost two weeks. Either neck, weather or work has kept me on spinning bike or trainer recently. I am hoping it won't be overly windy so I can hit my empty cornfields, but we will see. If nothing else should be able to do that Friday even if I must ride in the park tomorrow.

[marni]

I have an oven that works once again! while it does away with my plan to possibly take a short ride while engineer husband, mathematician son, linguist DIL, sound editor daughter and computer nerd friend all try and figure out how to either butterfly the turkey or deep fry it, it does mean that I will not be dealing with a variety of cooking and or housekeeping disasters and that the whole house should stay more or less in tact.

Turkey is currently being brined in a in maple syrup apple cider brine. happy holidays everyone!

marni

[Koronin]

It's just hubby and myself for Thanksgiving, actually for any and all holidays. Both of us basically prefer it that way. One reason we like being several hours away from any family. Although I prefer the distance from Charlotte better than here. In Charlotte it was 8 hrs to my family and 4 to his. Now it's about 2 to 2 and a half to his and 12 to mine. I'm actually one of those people who actually volunteered to work holidays to avoid having to spend the entire day with family. Then when I moved since I was single I volunteered to work holidays because well, I was by myself. After I was married the one year hubby had to be out of town over Thanksgiving a great friend/neighbor had me spend Thanksgiving at their house. I really enjoyed it spending it with her family. To this day I truly appreciated her inviting me to spend it with them.

[WindingRoad]

Well I made it the largest part of my route to my parents house. Had to get a bailout from my Mom with 8 miles to go due to a persistent rotweiller and a slight wrong turn :-( Must remember to go another route next time, soooooooo many dogs it was rediculous! It sucks that if there are no cars to harass u then u have to defend yourself against everyones dogs :-( Thankfully I wasn't bitten by any of them but I did have to mace a couple. Exhausting ride for mostly the wrong reasons but nonetheless I got a heck of a workout and I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner :-)

[Catrin]

Yikes WindingRoad, sorry to hear you had to bail so close to the end because of dogs! So very glad to hear you didn't get bitten or crash because of them :eek: I had wondered after what you said on facebook...but wasn't going to ask there. Enjoy your dinner and time with family :)

I've been single a long time, and live far away from family by choice. I typically am invited to spend Thanksgiving with a friends family from church and I always appreciate that.

[Crankin]

We've been doing Thanksgiving with friends for about 9 years. Since I no longer speak to my relatives who live in the area, that's it. My son who lives here is always included, even if we are going to our friends' house. In fact Thanksgiving is one of the reasons we stopped seeing my relatives. The one year my exchange student was living with us and I really wanted to have a traditional Thanksgiving, we went to my aunt's house. My cousin had to have Kosher food, which was all bought and prepared, not home cooked, and we had to eat on paper plates, since my aunt's home is not Kosher. The food sucked and and it was pretty much the worst Thanksgiving I've had. Thankfully, Richard came to visit us for Thanksgiving in 2007, so he got the real deal.

[goldfinch]

My parents are long gone and the spouse and I have no kids. But for years we have joined with my siblings and maybe some cousins for thanksgiving. We are not this year as we are back down in Iowa on the first state of going south.

I miss them.

We are making chicken soup with dumplings. We cooked the chicken in the slow cooker all night long. Now it is cooling and in a few hours I"ll debone it. My spouse has a friend here in town who just got out of the hospital. We will bring him soup, visit for a short bit, and go home.