This Thanksgiving we are doing something new. We are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house. It’s exciting because it’s our first time hosting a gathering and we’re breaking out of a routine. Each Thanksgiving my mother gives something at her house and Greg’s grandmother gives something at hers. Since Greg, Boogie, and I are a new family, we’ve been trying to figure out the whole who’s house are we going over and when debate so no one feels left out. This year Greg’s side will be coming over on Thanksgiving day and the day after, some of my side will be coming over.
We’re hoping to create a new tradition with a new environment, new family member (Boogie), and entertainment. There will be turkey, greens, dressing, mac n cheese, sweet potato pie, cabbage, potato salad, salad, and pumpkin cheesecake. No way am I cooking all of that, not this year! I’m just making the cabbage, potato salad, salad, and pumpkin cheesecake. I had planned on making catfish, but since the season has changed, so did the price of seafood, yikes!
To get in the Thanksgiving spirit, I bought table linens to use. I thought they might make the kitchen look more inviting. Through my involvement with the Rwanda Path to Peace Project, I received a beautiful hand woven basket bowl, an apron, and a market tote that I can put to use on Thanksgiving day. Rwandan basket bowls celebrate different blessings based on their patterns such as patience, bountiful harvest, and good fortune. The basket that I received celebrates life-giving bounty, certainly something we all are thankful for. The village print featured on the apron and market tote celebrate the Rwandan village life of graceful balance with the earth and their neighbors. Curving paths lead from one house to house, from friend to friend, clusters of plump fruit hang, flowers bloom, garden rows are dotted with sprouting plants coming up from fertile soil. A winding stream brings the delight of gurgling sounds and clear, cool water to drink. Yes, so much significance in one pattern.
Consider paying it forward to women in Rwanda who earn a sustainable income by providing these gifts to consumers. The entire line of Rwanda Path to Peace products can be found at Macy’s. Also, if you’re interested in giving the gift of O Bracelets for the holidays, hold that thought. I just may be able to provide a discount in the near future!
For a chance to win a Rwandan basket (color may vary), a Kikkoman recipe book, two full sized bottles of Kikkoman’s special sauces, plus a bottle of Country Bob’s seasoning salt and all purpose sauce to use this holiday season, leave a comment. Feel free to answer any of the following questions: What do you have planned this Thanksgiving or depending on the day, what did you do this Thanksgiving? Do you usually jump from house to house? How do you make it work? Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions? Tell us about them in the comments! This giveaway will run through December 1st, 2009 7PM CST.
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::Patting you on the back:: Good job on your 1st turkey! I haven’t been brave enough to host just yet. Now I will go to bed dreaming about TDay food LOL
We usually go to my in laws and I would bring sweet potato pies and mac and cheese. With a family of 6 house hopping can get pretty tiresome. This year we plan on just having a quiet thanksgiving at home. My dad and brothers plan to stop by and get some food of course
I only make sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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For thanksgiving, we usually set one family members house to be the designated buffet place lol. To show thanks, we all write a letter addressed to a family member about why we are thankful for having he/she in our lives.
Just a small gathering with all the trimmings and my 2 yr. old grandbaby is going to help me make dessert!
I am spending the day taking it easy andeating turkey
For the first time I am going to my wife’s kids Turkey Day. I am cooking turkey and dressing and potato salad. My wife is Samoan and they do not do a traditional turkey day dinner. They will be eating Pacific Island and Asian cuisine. So they will be trying American holiday food for the first time.
We go over to my parent’s house. My sister and MIL fly in from their respective cities, and we eat, watch football, and play games all day. It’s my favorite holiday!
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No traditions – just finding lots of turkey to eat somewhere. Today it will be a buffet at a nearby retirement community.
Our family’s Thanksgiving tradition is to have both ham and turkey, beautifully folded napkins, and homemade place cards!
Happy Thanksgiving!
We have a fairly laid-back Thanksgiving-we do have a big dinner with all the traditional things-turkey, potatoes, stuffing, pecan pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. Then we collapse in the living room.
So the Thanksgiving Day parade is on TV. They turkey is in the oven, pies are made, and am anxiously awaiting my family to arrive so we can all have a very tasty, enjoyable and relaxing day!
our tradition is to have dinner at grandmas house then to to my husbands family’s house to have dinner again!
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my thanksgiving like all my holidays are non traditional i usually have chinese delivered
We always gather together and have a turkey lunch right after Santa is seen on the Macy’s parade.
This year, it was just the six of us. We have turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy, macaroni and cheese, and baked ziti followed by pumpkin pie, apple pie, ice cream, and whipped cream.
My niece cooked for us. It was so nice.
we really don’t do the whole thanksgiving thing. We are vegan and there is now just my youngest daughter and myself (my oldest 2 live out of state) we may fix a pizza, see a movie. No Black Friday either
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We Had our normal Thanksgiving Lunch
around 1pm and then Met up with other family members at my Grandmas!
And shared a good dinner with her (from a Mexican Catering Serivce)
haha–talk about untraditional.
This year we had a quiet Thanksgiving at home and took a walk on the beach after a big dinner.
My family always comes to my house for Thanksgiving.
Actually, we volunteered at the church to deliver meals to families in the community, and ate the same meals ourselves. A good feeling, no mess at home to clean up, and good fellowship. Bad thing–no leftovers!
That Rwandan Basket is awesome! I want one! We went to my Hubby’s Aunts for T-day. It was the typical place to go and I brought the same dishes I bring every year (corn, bread and potatoes). I love how you guys broke from “norm”
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We stayed with FIL for Thanksgiving this year.
We spent our Thanksgiving at our youngest daughters. She was in charge of all the cooking & did great. It was a wonderful day.
I usually go from my BFF’s family’s celebration to my brothers. But this year, I just stayed at my BFFs.
Thanks for the giveaway >^..^<
I hope your dual Thanksgiving were a success. We had friends over and I always cook more so that everyone can take home leftovers.
Sounds like you had a great Thanksgiving Dinner. You are a woman after my own heart, linen napkins! I love it. It does make the table look extra special. I use linen table cloths and napkins plus nice china to eat off. For over 20 years Thanksgiving dinner is at our house. Usually anywhere from 13 to 18 family join us for a formal dinner. We have turkey, dressing, ham, greens, casseroles and other dishes plus my homemade from scratch yeast rolls. This year we had family come from Maryland and Tennessee as well as my daughter’s in-laws and my 5th grade school teacher. After dinner, games and conversation. Thanksgiving is always a very special time for me.
we had italian this year and it was yummers
We have no family in the state so we always find a friend who will host us. Then we provide lots of yummy food!
Everyone always gathers at my home for Thanksgiving each year.
We all contribute to the menu by dividing the prep and food. Which takes the weight off of just one person. And all participate in cleaning up so that we can enjoy our time together with family and friends.
Thank you so much for the chance to win.
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Just typical Turkey Day dinner with family and some football on Tv. Thanks for the chance.
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I visited my grandparents. They are in their 80s and adorable..I love them so much!!
Grandma made her perfect Dumplins(even though she said they were too hard) and grandpa refused the electric knife when carving the Turkey(even after his Carpal Tunnel Surgery)
I am soooo Thank ful;)
We spend one year at my in laws and one year at my parents. Eache family brings their favorite dishes.
For Thanksgiving we all went to my father’s. There were so many people and it was so nice seeing everyone.
Our family went to FL to be with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Unfortunately, I got the flu and spent 3 out of the 7 days in bed. At least the other 4 days were nice.
My daughter comes in from out of state with her family. My sister used to come over with her family but she recently passed. It was hard this year.
We just moved form FL back to NJ 2 months ago so we have to start creating new traditions here. We spent Thanksgiving with our family here in NJ this year and plan to do the same next year.
We went to our family’s for dinner.
This year we broke tradition too, and stayed home. All of our family is on the east coast, while we’re in Oregon, and travel was just too much this year. This year’s turkey came out much MUCH better than the one I cooked 5 years ago. I basted that bugger religiously every 15 minutes… only to discover that I’d put him in the pan upside down. So the bird’s butt was perfectly brown, basted… and meat-less. While all the breast meat stewed in the juices and came out boiled…
We usually spend Thanksgiving at the in-laws. Hopefully next year everyone will come to our home so we won’t have to travel!
We had a quarentine Thanksgiving. I had strep throat and it looked as if my daughter was getting it (she did). So we stayed at home and had Thanksgiving all to ourselves so we didn’t spread the Strep.
We did what we usually do. We spend Thanksgiving alone just lounging and seeing a movie. Friday we go to visit my family and on Saturday we visit his. I can’t imagine trying to cram both of those meals in one day!
We go to my dad’s for dinner
We live two thousand miles from all of our extended family so we have adopted some friends here as our family and I cook a big thanksgiving dinner and invite our friends over to share with us.
We do not live near family so we have Thanksgiving at our home.
It is a tradition for my family to come to our house. My husband always has to work the day after Thanksgiving so we cant travel for the holiday. I always brine a turkey and make funny place cards for everyone
Our Thanksgiving Tradition is to watch at least one old western movie before dinner.
We went to my parent’s house for Thanksgiving. We tried to do it at home a year or too but it never felt right so we go there every year. We have a tradition of doing our own “Thanksgiving” on Friday because we love leftovers!
I cooked a huge meal. We had 14 people including a couple in the military who just moved here and didn’t know anyone. It was a lot of fun.
we drove (7 hours) to the beach, and then 2 of us were sick the entire time!! we are better now!! our tradition is going to the beach every thanksgiving!!!
We usually travel out of state for Thanksgiving, but this year we had a simple dinner at home with family. It was very nice. It’s been a rough year so it was nice to have a day to be thankful for all that is good for us.
Well, we had a relatively quiet Thanksgiving. My eldest son lives in another city with his girlfriend and they had their own party – my two daughters are older and had plans – so it was might quiet
i cooked, 13 people, and no food poisonings!
I went to my parents home on Thanksgiving
We went to get our Christmas tree, volunteered, and ate at my Mother-in-laws on Thanksgivng day. A busy day for sure, but loved it!!
Gee, this is a gorgeous basket!
Well, I made Thanksgiving dinner for our family so it was for the 7 of us. Just us-complete turkey dinner. I didn’t make any dessert because we had a family get-together at my house on Saturday so by the end of the holiday I was so tired. But, and this is crazy, I did make the fresh yams with butter, brown sugar and spices and then refridgerated them and we ate those for after dinner. They taste like pumpkin pie without the crust or calories. Yum.
We did something different this year – Thanksgiving dinner with just me and my parents. Usually we have more family over, but it was still nice!
My mother and I shared a bad case of the flu this year, so we had chicken and rice soup for dinner – but at least we had each other to commiserate with throughout the day!
Our tradition is that each of my children pick two foods they want for Thanksgiving dinner and then they help prepare them and serve them. We also go around the table and everyone says what they’re thankful for. Thanks.
I went to my folks house, and they hosted some church friends also. We had GREAT food, they used all food nework recipes.
we had an awesome dinner at home that everyone helped to make
Thanksgiving was wonderful. I cooked, but stuck to the traditional (and easy) and was surrounded by family. Couldn’t have been better.
We spent a nice Thanksgiving with family
I had a quiet Thanksgiving at home with Dinner and all the Trimmings. Felt full afterwards and fulfilled
I went to my sisters house this year. Usually I have Thanksgiving here and the whole family comes over. This year was so easy- no cleaning, didn’t have to make most of the food, and there wasn’t even a lot of traffic on the roads!
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Our Thanksgiving was great! Our tradition is to visit 2 or 3 houses and come back home to plan out our Black Friday assault!
Would love to win this!
We had a treaditional Thanksgiving dinner. My son and his family who lives in the next town over came over. We just have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with family.
My mom did a huge spread and I was in charge of all the desserts. I made two pumpkin pies, one apple pie and cheesecake.
My little one and I went to a friend’s house for turkey day!
I think our only tradition is AVOIDING the Christmas decorating until at least the next day.
I made glazed ham, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, rolls and mushroom gravy
I stayed at home for Thanksgiving and had a nice dinner.
We go to my parent’s house on Thanksgiving.
I went to both my parents house and my husbands parents house, it was a delicious journey!
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