Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Nov 24, 2015 11:27:47 GMT -5
Cornish game hens.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2015 11:29:29 GMT -5
As a side bar, if I don't get people for the main meal of a holiday I don't try to recreate it. That is how we all end up the size of houses. I either do the traditional left over meals like hot turkey sandwiches or a brunch or something of the sort. I do not like to eat 3 or 4 Christmas meals and in my experience others feel the same. For example GW does Christmas dinner with her Mom so I have made a tradition of Chinese Food for us on Christmas Eve.
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emma1420
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Post by emma1420 on Nov 24, 2015 12:02:32 GMT -5
As a side bar, if I don't get people for the main meal of a holiday I don't try to recreate it. That is how we all end up the size of houses. I either do the traditional left over meals like hot turkey sandwiches or a brunch or something of the sort. I do not like to eat 3 or 4 Christmas meals and in my experience others feel the same. For example GW does Christmas dinner with her Mom so I have made a tradition of Chinese Food for us on Christmas Eve. My step-mom does a huge english breakfast with mimosa's the years that us kids (there are 5 us combined and we are all adults) spend the holiday's elsewhere. I like the fact that she's not trying to recreate Xmas dinner, but that we have our own tradition for the "off" years.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Nov 24, 2015 12:17:30 GMT -5
I am curious - do you guys all expect kids to sit through the entire meal? My kids are fairly good at sitting at the table when it's required of them, but if lunch was served at 12, I would have no problem sending them for a nap at 1 and possibly continuing a meal with the adults. They could catch up on their deserts after their nap. Nope. But my parents house has a kids table and now even DD has graduated out of the high chair to go sit with her cousins. The 7 kids (ages almost 3 to almost 18) sit together and the older ones help out the younger ones and when they are done they go back to the play room. We don't even make a big deal out of how much they eat. Special occasi and we don't have to worry about them except to help them get food. It is bliss.
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Regis
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Post by Regis on Nov 24, 2015 12:40:04 GMT -5
I am curious - do you guys all expect kids to sit through the entire meal? My kids are fairly good at sitting at the table when it's required of them, but if lunch was served at 12, I would have no problem sending them for a nap at 1 and possibly continuing a meal with the adults. They could catch up on their deserts after their nap. I expect my kids to sit through an entire meal. But then again, my kids are 20, 22 and 24 - and I'm the one who gets a nap after the meal!
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Nov 24, 2015 13:00:04 GMT -5
Or turkey parts, roasted separately. Faster cooking time, and you get to buy exactly what you want and need.
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Spellbound454
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Post by Spellbound454 on Nov 24, 2015 13:35:53 GMT -5
We are having a huge English breakfast at Christmas ...since people have plans for the rest of the day Can't you do that?...or a brunch. Its much easier to cook. Its not the actual thanksgiving day. If they kids haven't had a nap and they are tetchy...you won't be wanting them there for long anyway.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Nov 24, 2015 14:00:27 GMT -5
But she is also trying to accommodate DIL's mother who needs to be somewhere by 6pm. So, between kids' naps and DIL's mother leaving at certain time - she is basically stuck having Thanksgiving brunch/lunch/dinner at 11am or nothing at all. I don't think that's reasonable. Thanks, Lena, for remembering this is partly about including my DIL's mom. I understand about naps, etc. The idea, though, was to make it early enough so that my DIL's mother could leave and be at her mother's to sit at 6 p.m. She would have to leave by 5 p.m. at the earliest. Her mother doesn't have to stay the entire time, either. So it isn't 11 a.m. or nothing at all.
I usually do set a time with a little negotiation room. But we really wanted to accommodate my DIL's mother. So I asked while we were all there together in Costco's parking lot. And I did it the "polite" way because I'm Southern. I asked, "What works for you?" Big mistake. My DIL answered instead of her mom.
Just for the record, this isn't our first Thanksgiving together. It's never been about naps before. These aren't their first children.
I did call her and tell her that it was too early.
Lunch is now at 12.
Is it possible that one of the kids is having sleep/nap issues? I'm not typically strict about naptime, but if we're seeing a trend of behavioral issues and napping at 11:30am fixes it then I will be firmer and schedule around it. MIL/DIL relationships can be very difficult. Try to be flexible. Even when you feel like you're already being flexible. I'm not saying be a doormat, but find common ground. And honestly, most holidays are a checklist item to me at this point. Not because I don't want to see my family or dh's family, but because of everything else that goes along with the holiday. I spend LESS time with my family on holidays than I do regular visits because of all the set up and cleaning. IMO the holidays can be more about keeping up appearances and control than quality time.
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milee
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Post by milee on Nov 24, 2015 17:19:25 GMT -5
Or turkey parts, roasted separately. Faster cooking time, and you get to buy exactly what you want and need. Boneless turkey breast is one of the few things that cooks really nicely in the crock pot. Set it and forget it, come back later to a reasonable meal.
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MJ2.0
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Post by MJ2.0 on Nov 24, 2015 17:54:50 GMT -5
Or turkey parts, roasted separately. Faster cooking time, and you get to buy exactly what you want and need. Boneless turkey breast is one of the few things that cooks really nicely in the crock pot. Set it and forget it, come back later to a reasonable meal. I did that last year and everything was delicious!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2015 18:16:49 GMT -5
Boneless turkey breast is one of the few things that cooks really nicely in the crock pot. Set it and forget it, come back later to a reasonable meal. I did that last year and everything was delicious! We actually switched the menu to a pork loin for pretty much the same reason. 12 noon is very doable. 11 isn't for a host of reasons including the fact that no one will be hungry. Why cook a big meal if no one is going to eat?
It's fine now. I'm just very non-assertive and let people tell me what to do. Thank God for DH! He doesn't put up with stuff. He doesn't want dinner at 11 o'clock so there will be no dinner at 11 o'clock.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Nov 24, 2015 18:20:53 GMT -5
Both sides of my family are in the eating at 11 are you nuts camp. It would never happen. Particularly on dad's side grandma is not a morning person.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2015 18:46:21 GMT -5
My son's family is supposed to celebrate Thanksgiving with us on Friday. (My daughter's family is coming on Saturday.) We gave up on the actual day years ago. DH said just to stake claim on Friday and quit letting it hurt me. So I have. We usually have my DIL's mom over as well because she's basically alone. Her partner died several years ago And we like her mom a lot. So when I invited her mom, her mom said she'd love to come, but she spent Friday nights sitting with her mother. No problem. We'd have it early enough for her to get there by 6 p.m. So we hadn't set a definite time but were thinking about 1 or maybe even 3 on Friday. It's a fairly traditional meal. Then we ran into my DIL and her mother when we were at Costco this morning. We decided to set a time. My DIL said they'd be over at 10:30, and we could eat at 11. Then the youngest boys could get their naps at 1. Even her mother was startled, but then she threw in the nap thing so her mother said ok. Dh can't really hear that well in a crowd and missed the whole thing. When he did hear, he was annoyed. Exactly what time does she expect us to get up to cook a Thanksgiving dinner to be ready at 11 a.m.? He was going to get rotisserie chickens, but who has them ready at 10 a.m.? (She knew the menu.) Is anyone even going to be hungry enough to do a dinner justice at 11 a.m.? He's sure the kids' naps have been delayed before. For him, this smacks of "why bother" They are obviously only coming over here because they have to so "let's do it early and get it over with." She's not cooking or bringing anything so she's not really thinking how difficult it will be for me to pull it off that early. He's really unhappy because he feels that my family does this sort of stuff to me all the time. I'm caught in the middle, of course. But actually I am siding with DH on this one. I have nine grandchildren, and hers aren't even the youngest. We've never planned on people arriving at 10:30/dinner at 11 because of naps before. Do those of you with children make this type of demands on your parents/inlaws? I would kindly suggest that they come over after the kids have napped. I think it very rude and presumptuous to dictate the meal time when you are an invited guest.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2015 0:06:46 GMT -5
This is an update of sorts.
Everyone showed up at 11 when we hadn't really finished cooking a lot of stuff. DH gave them wine while we cooked. Lunch was ready at 12 when I planned.
No one ate that much. The kids were freaked out by red potatoes with parsley flakes. We did those because one of them is lactose-intolerance. Only then his mom said mashed potatoes didn't really apply. Too late. They also don't like glazed carrots, green beans, or squash casserole. That isn't fair; one of the four was scarfing green beans. But that's not a good percentage.
However, dessert saved the day. Not your ordinary dessert. I had skittles (lactose-intolerant kid) and M&Ms (two-year-old) that were obviously superior to the cheese cake/pumpkin cake cream cheese cake that the rest of us had.
I sure am glad that I learned to "make" skittles and M&Ms. They redeemed me in the minds of a three- and two-year-old.
And for those of you who care about naps, they were still up and playing at the Boys Scouts Christmas tree stand where their parents were working shortly after leaving me. They looked fine digging in the dirt.
So no toddlers were harmed in the interruption of their regularly scheduled naps.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Nov 28, 2015 0:36:09 GMT -5
Thanksgiving was rough on my 3-1/2 year old. He generally loves veggies, but not in casseroles, which is what was served at both Thanksgiving celebrations we attended. I like the veggie options you listed - next year I'm making sure to bring a non-casserole veggie.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Nov 28, 2015 0:36:24 GMT -5
And glad it turned out mostly okay!
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