Conference quark::mennotes-v1

Why don't you volunteer to help serve Thanksgiving dinners to the homeless?
There are usually programs of that nature in larger cities, and it's
bound to make you feel better than watching inflatable mutant turtles on
TV!

			Steve

    
    Why don't you make a nice dinner for yourself? Thanksgiving is just
    another day - enjoy the time off from work - that's what I'm most
    thankful for!
    
    
    
    bonnie

    Actually, I'll be having Thanksgiving with friends on a Hallmark
    card-like farm in Ojai, CA, about 90mi. north of Los Angeles.
    I guess the comments about parades and Tv dinners should have
    been plastered with smiley faces.
    
    I hace clear memories of my mother and aunts slaving away for
    hours in the kitchen and my father and his cronies watching foot-
    ball or whatnot until dinner was ready.  Then, on some non-verbal
    cue, he would command center stage, give he blessing and cut the
    turkey.  Sounds like a typical sit-com, don't it?  I kind'a miss
    all that family ceremony.  I was wondering whether others had dif-
    fering experiences.
    
    Feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving is something I've said I'm going
    to do, the kind of service I normally do; yet I've never followed
    through.  Don't know why.
    
    LArry

    
    I hope Harry's Hofbrau is open on TG...they have turkey every
    other day of the year..

    Thanksgiving means being able to spend a long weekend with my family in
    Rhode Island and walk on the beach after consuming all that food!
    
    When we were growing up, everyone would come to my parents house for
    TD and mom would do all of the cooking.  As my grandparents grew older,
    we'd go to *their* house and everyone would pitch in.
    
    Now we each decide who will bring what part of the meal and we all
    gather at my parents house.  Everyone pitches in on the preparation and
    clean-up.  There are always friends whose families aren't close by, so
    we always have extended family at the table for dinner!
    
    This year we decided that mom will cook the turkey, since the person
    who volunteered to do it last year couldn't make it because of the snow
    storm!  
    
    I can't wait to take a walk on the beach!
    
    
    Judi
    

    Thanksgiving is: going to visit my married sons in Northern Virginia.
    
    Two years ago, my son Eric "did it" at his house:
    
    Eric stuffed the turkey and later carved it, having studied a
    little booklet on how to carve a turkey.  His Korean wife cooked
    a million other things, including some terrific Korean dishes
    (not that Thanksgiving means anything in Korea!).  While his
    wife cooked all the stuff in the kitchen and the oven cooked
    the turkey, Eric took care of his then 18-month old son.  This
    year it will be at Eric's house again, and I imagine it will be
    a repeat performance, except that Eric will  be taking care of
    his 3 1/2 year old and 11-month old sons.  
    
    I am the honored guest, I get to smoke the cigars (just kidding)
    and bring the wine.  My other son and wife and 2-year old will
    also be there.
    
    What is totally amazing about this is that Eric was the brattiest
    of my four kids.  He did not even *speak* to any of us for the last 
    3 months of high school, while he waited to graduate and join the
    Army.  He went through Army Ranger training, parachuted into deep
    snow in Montana, and into jungles in Panama (before the invasion),
    sat on the DMZ in Korea, etc.  Something about all that changed him
    and he became a nice guy.  He works hard, loves his wife and kids,
    and he is the one who pulls the whole family together on Thanksgiving.
    I don't understand how it happened, but it makes me happy.
    
    Bill                                     

I plan to start the day by putting the turkey in the smoker then going
back to bed once the birds done I'm off to my parents for dinner with the 
whole family. 
I also have to work 1600-2400 but that will be slow and I'll have left
overs yum!

-j

    I'll start the day at 35 or 40000 ft and land in Tokyo on Thursday
    afternoon, just about midnight on TD morning EST.  I understand the
    next day is "Labor Thanksgiving" in Japan.  I'll try to observe the
    local customs and report back.
    
    ed

    I lived in the mid-west a year ago and we didn't have family or know
    anyone during our stay out there, so we got together with friends we
    had around our neighborhood and "grilled" turkeys on our outdoor
    grills - some of the best turkey I've ever had.
    
    This year's gonna be different - I'm heading up to the mountains to
    do some skiing.
    
    -Lynn
    

Ahhh,,  I love thanksgiving...  I simply try not to eat myself
into a stupor..  


We usually take the kids over one of the grandparents houses alternate
each year...  By 4 or so, I'm ready to get back home to my own
frosted windows, couch and T.v. set.

Last year we put on the feast..  It was a great feeling to have everyone
over, as I recal we had quite a nasty snow storm that day.  

	My family is pretty spread out. I live in NH, one brother lives
	in Seattle WASH. (thank you God :-)), the other in upstate NY,
	and my sister lives in the Bahamas. So getting together is not
	too practical. My father has to go have Thanksgiving at his
	mother in laws this year. Sweat irony. I invited him and my step
	Mom to come to our house. He used to give us a hard time about
	not coming to his place (he was widowed when I was little and only
	recently re-married so didn't understand in-laws real well) but 
	going to my in-laws house for the holidays.

	Now he understands what he put me through and knows I'm letting him
	off easy. We'll probably get him next year. I hope so.

	We'll have a small thanksgiving this year. One of my cousins is coming
	as he lives near us and the rest of his family is gathering some 
	distance away in New Jersey. It's always nice to have 'extra' people.
	We have often invited others who were far from their family on the
	day.

	My wife will do the cooking because we like to have food that people
	will eat for thanksgiving. Hopefully she'll cut the turkey to. I
	hate the job. Everyone will help cleaning us. There may be a couple
	of long distance phone calls. Some outgoing, some incomming as we
	touch base with family far away. After dinner, we'll clean up. Then 
	we'll probably eat again. Thanksgiving means never really stopping 
	eating.

	Some time during the day I'll find some quiet spot alone and spend
	some time in prayer thanking God for all the wonderful things He's
	done for me and my family over the last year. That private time is
	one of the highlights of the day for me. It's what the day is all
	about. having the family and food there just serves to highlight
	some of the things to be thankfull for.

			Alfred

    Aaahhhhhh....Thanksgiving with the family.
    
    When my parents were younger and most of the kids were alive, it meant
    a chance for the *whole* family to get together to watch my father
    handle the stress of the day poorly, so that we could all be at each
    other's throats by the end of the day.   Siiiggghhh.
    
    The good old days.   (*8
    
    
    Now we just go to a restaraunt, and there are fewer throats to be at.
    
    
    E Grace
    

    We're in Colorado, my wife's family is in North Carolina, my
    family is in California (with a couple sisters in Texas).  We
    like it that way.
    
    Maybe we'll just have a con call...  :^)  :^)
    
    Gene

    I've had some unusual Thanksgivings;
    one in Venice, Italy, where I had gnochi instead of turkey
    one at an Italian_american family reunion in Boston; the best pasta
    I ever had...
    many with groups of friends, like myself, a long way away from our
    far-flung families...
    a vegetarian Thanksgiving on Staten Island...
    
    And good friends are something to be seriously thankful for, which is
    what it is all about.
    
    -roger
    

    We used to do standard Turkey-stuff a long time ago.  Then, once we
    moved to New England, for a few years we'd go up to Maine to stay at a
    cottage (without heat or running water, but with electricity and a
    pot-bellied stove) for the weekend.  We'd enjoy the crisp air, read
    books, stand by the fire, cut down our christmas trees - that kind of
    stuff.  For thanksgiving, since Mom abhored the thought of the cleanup
    without running water or a dishwasher, we had thanksgiving pancakes on
    an electric skillet.  
    
    These days it's a smaller fixing-up for Mom as well - as it's only the
    immediate family (4 members & my grandfather).  We generally do Turkey
    for christmas so this year we're having scallop casserole for
    thanksgiving.  I think the true meaning is in the sentiment, rather
    than what you eat......
    
    so we're weird!
    
    -Jody
    

    Brenda and I have rented a truck.  We're gonna pick up furniture,
    stove, refrigerator, and "stuff" from relatives in three different
    towns in MA.  We'll spend Thanksgiving at her Mom's and give thanks for
    all the blessings each of us have received since marrying.  Then it's
    off to Vermont, to deposit the "stuff" in the log home we built there
    this past summer.  I'll do a bit of building and plumbing while there
    is time this weekend, and then on Sunday, I have to fly to Gander,
    Newfoundland for a week of business.
    
    So, it's gonna be a TV-less, game-less, busy weekend!  
    
    tony

    Enjoyable reading thus far.
    
    Thanksgiving '90 is going to be unique for me.  The host is a New Age,
    crystal-wearing "channeller", meaning he's in psychic contact with a
    400 year old spirit named "Alexander", among other dead people.  He's 
    also a "vegan", a kind of radical vegetarian who dosesn't consume any-
    thing with a life-force.  As he says, "if it has a face, it has a con-
    sciousness and I don't eat it."  (I swear I'm not making any of this
    up.)  Despite my counter-arguements, the turkey option got the heave-ho.
    As a compromise, he's going to prepare a squash and tofu souffle in
    the shape of a turkey.  I hope "Alexander" like it.
    
    I really liked Roger's comment about being thankful for good friends. 
    I sometimes find it too easy to grpie about what I want, what I'm
    working toward, what someone else has that I want, blah, blah ...  In a 
    world of dwindling resources and diminished compassion, I have *much* to
    celebrate (including this conference).
    
    LArry  

    
    
    
    This Thanksgiving I'll be at my in-laws,2 towns over from me in MA.  
    As all their kids are grown, they're asking that we each bring part
    of the dinner.  (My husband and I are the elected stuffing makers.)
    Both the men and the women cook in this family.  (Actually every
    time my husband and I make a turkey we fight over what kind of 
    sausage to put in the stuffing, who gets to spice it ...) However,
    the oldest man carves the turkey.  (I don't like knives, so I don't
    put up a fight.)  As my sister-in-law is a pharmacist and is working
    in the morning, I expect that we'll lounge around all morning at home.
    Then go to his parents to lounge around some more.  Then we'll finally
    eat around 6.  Then we'll go to the local townie bar so Jon can see
    all his old girlfriends.  (I don't mind, they all look REALLY fat
    on this day!)  Just kidding.  All the kids/adults-now that he went to
    high school with go to this bar.  And if we can do all this without
    becoming ill, it'll be a great day!
    
    
    Actually, I forgot, but Thanksgiving really starts Wed night for us.
    We'll attend an ecumenical,(SP), church service and then fire-up the
    turkey to slow-cook for 12+ hours.
    
    Rachael
    

    I started with this custom 26 years ago and have not missed a single
    year so far! (I am Spanish, from Sevilla, and thanksgiving is totally
    unknown there...) I husband introduced me to his custom (he is from
    Buffalo, NY) I cooked my first traditional dinner in 1964 and... was
    pronounced so good that I've cooked it ever since...
    We moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1984 and that year I could not find a
    turkey anywhere in that city! (turkeys were reserved for Xmas...) so I
    had to settle for... CORNISH HENS! but i managed to get everything else
    including pumpkin pie that I made with local "squash" or whatever that
    stuff was, because it tasted fine, but it looked a bit green, it really
    looked like pistacchio more than squash but... oh well! we did have a
    lot of fun and our kids will never forget that special thanksgiving...
    
    This year I expect my daughter fron NYC, my future "in-laws", and the
    usual single friends we have that because they do not have a family
    come to our house... I've had students of every nationality in for
    dinner during the 4 years that my daughters were in college... they
    invited kids who lived far away and it has always been wonderful! 
    2 years ago I had kids from Colombia, Japan, Pakistan, El Salvador,
    France and Switzerland all together and all having the best time!
    
    Since I always do the cooking... I also do the carving! My husband
    takes care of serving good red wine or champagne for a toast (or
    toasts, in plural), before "attacking" the bird... and before that we
    all give a special Thanksgiving prayer holding hands together.....
    that is a very special significant moment to all of us! 
    
    

    So how did it go? Ours was great. As usual my wife cooked enough food
    for 2-3 times the number of people present. There is some method to
    that seeming madness though. We're both going to school nights and
    term projects and finals are approaching. We now have several great
    meals in the freezer for those nights we just don't have time to
    cook.

    Traditionally we put lights on an evergreen in the front yard before
    the end of the long week end. The tree is some 15-16 feet high now
    and it's being lit is the traditional signal in our part of town that
    the Christmas season has started. People returning from long week ends
    out of town look for it on their return. Yesterday the weather was
    great and so my son and I got out the ~190 lights and got to work. It
    looks great though I'm afraid that I'll need a longer ladder to reach
    the top next year.

    My cousin showed up in time for a long dinner. Afterwards, and after
    clearing the table, it was outside to play a little basketball to make
    room for desert. My wife made 4 pies to make sure everyone (there was
    4 of us) had a kind we'd like. :-) After desert there was talking and
    a little Nentindo playing while we made room for sandwiches.
    Thanksgiving in our family means eating all day long, sharing old times
    and creating new memories for the future. I love it.

    		Alfred

    
    For me it was like most days, except that it wasn't a workday.
    
    I went out and gathered some stove wood, and then rode my mt bike
    up Grizzly Flat Rd and down Charcoal Rd.
    
    Harrys Hofbrau turned out to be closed, so it was yoghurt and
    grapenuts for dinner... 
    
    

    Well, for goodness sake, Mike, don't stop there!  What happened in
    Boston?
    
    aq
    

    re .25
    
    we bought some light reading and browsed...