So how was everyones thanksgiving?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

i dont know how it is for everyone else..but holidays spent with my mother ever since i have been out has been a nightmare...

she likes to routinely point out what a disappointment i am now..and how perfect i was when i was younger (code word for when straight)

ironically i also got into grad school on thanksgiving...you think that would make me not a disappointment right? but you would be wrong.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. You should find a less toxic environment for the holidays

Spend it with friends. If your mother asks why, say politely -- and only once -- that you love her but would rather spend your time without her constant criticism.

And my Thanksgiving was nice. I spent it with my sister, her boyfriend, their (yes, that is the correct pronoun)other boyfriend, and the other boyfriend's wife. The closest thing to a negative comment I heard all day was, "Why are you still single?" My response was, "If you would quit hogging all the options, I probably wouldn't be." :hi:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. that sounds like a much more happy family.

[AB_Positive]

3. ok, save for stomach issues

My thanksgiving had my mother coming here to bring me a small dinner and some ginger ale. Apparently my body now hates alcohol at the cellular level, no matter the amount (small as it was that night).

The separation is getting more and more apparent as I'm no longer 'her little boy'. Liberal politics dominated the discussion, and not much else as there's not much for us to agree on anymore. It's ok for everyone else to be who they want to be, just not me.

My roommate had the same issue growing up, oddly. I'd like to give thanks to all the parents out there that are -truly- loving towards their kids and orientation/identity. Seriously, even amongst the liberal folks up in the northeast, it's a rarity that shouldn't be.


Enough of a side-rant... turkey + stuffing = yum, even with a sour stomach. Ginger ale helped, and since I work at a school, it was nice having 5 days off straight paid (for a change).

-AB+

[sui generis]

4. SO and I have to travel to opposite ends of the continent

so we decided to stay in!

We got some friends to go in with us and brought 30 turkeys plus all the standards & flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, potatoes & pies into the AIDS Food Pantry here earlier in the week.

Wednesday eve I went to go get a turkey for us - not a damn turkey left anywhere in Dallas! There are always dozens from overstock, except for some bizarre reason this year. I ended up going to four different stores - not even plain old frozen turkey breast, and I was ready to stuff that bird with a citrus concoction and glaze it with butter-drawn rosemary, olive oil and paprika baste, and yank them neck bones and gizzards out make me up some down home giblet gravy with shallots & sherry.

So instead wednesday night found me circling the store like a buzzard in a black and evil mood wondering if my brownie points would be taken if I just accidentally lifted someone else's turkey out of their basket while they weren't looking and sprinted for the express checkout line.

Instead I saw another high pissy queen fixate on something in the ham bin and go back to get her cart and wheel it around and I looked myself and what did I see, eight feet away in the ham bin, but the end of a turkey drumstick pokin' up out of the hams. So just as miss thang was just turning around, the whole thing happened in slow motion and I knew that bird was a goner so I ran, did a tsukahara back layout and used some little eight year old who was loitering in front of the Brach's as a springboard and vaulted into the ham bin to snatch that damn bird. I looked up, 8.5's and 9's, Hungary gave me low marks for artistic impression but I got me the gold.

So I dusted the ice chips off my face, rolled out of the bin with that bird under my arm and sprinted like a mad leather queen at a Macy's day sale and bolted for front of the store. Finally when I got up there I looked down to see what it was I got, and it turned out it was a frozen deep fried cajun turkey. I said what the hell, and bought it and ducked out towards my car before anyone could come after me with a fire axe in the parking lot.

Now I've never bought a frozen fried turkey before and the instructions said to throw it in the oven without thawing, and I was thinking it would just turn out like turkey-jerky or something, but it was perfect - no basting, nothing, and it made well over a quart of seasoned drippings so I whipped up a nice gravy and that was that.

We had a lovely fireside dinner, bottle of wine and then called our respective relatives and said the usual yes fine fine oh that's nice, you too, love you, good night.

Don't let your Mom get you down lioness. You're the one who's living your life, not her.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

7. you are SUCH a funny person!

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. You can take the comic out of the drama queen....

But you can't take the drama queen out of the comic. Thank goodness!

Excellent story; I really needed that laugh. :hi:

[sui generis]

15. that's da-rawwwma to you!

:P

Don't make me go all Ethel Merman on you now! :evilgrin:

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. "To Ethel, life was a musical...."

A comic one of co-workers has in her cube: two women from an old B&W movie from the forties, one woman looking Prozac-cheerful and the other watching her, looking concerned. The cheerful woman has a speak-bubble above her head saying, "We have to hurry, but first, I feel a song coming on...."

[zbdent]

5. Took some time off from worshipping Satan and aborting babies

and sending money to the terrorists to visit with my family ...

and then I found out Sunday that, due to their antics on Thanksgiving Day, my RW brother may just file divorce proceedings against my RW sister-in-law ...

and he's been married one year less than I have ...

[Mabus]

6. I agree with TechBear_Seattle - you need a less toxic environment

We had our small orphan's Thanksgiving this year and among our attendees was one of our gay friends. He opted to spend the holiday with us rather than stay in California and spend it with his family. That's right, he was visiting his parents early so he wouldn't have to spend the holiday with them. He came out to them years ago and they're fine with it. Really, they are. There are just a lot of other family issues and problems he doesn't want to deal with, so he spends a occasional holiday with us. The biggest problem is, like you, no matter what he or his siblings do, they are failures.

We've got another gay friend who has spent countless Christmases with us rather than spend it with his Baptist family. From what he says, it gets pretty ugly at times.

For the most part, we have orphan holidays for our friends. I've done it off and on for close to 25 years. My husband liked the idea so after we got married, we started doing them together. We invite our friends over who can't/don't want to/won't go home. I always make too much food and people come over for conversation, lots of food and they get to meet our other friends. I've had one other person show up and I've had groups of almost 20 drop in. I've also helped get small groups together to go hit Thanksgiving buffets together. Just get the word out to your friends and you'll be surprised who shows up. I just figure the holidays are supposed to be fun and so I choose the family that I spend them with.

[AB_Positive]

8. just wanted to say...

Mabus - that's the best idea regarding the holidays I've seen... well ever! I'd head over there rather than try to face family every year.

edit - worst apostraphe use ever.

[Mabus]

11. LOL

If you're in the area, you'd be welcome. Classicfilmfan came by this year and evlbstrd is threatening to come over for Thanksgiving next year http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=153&topic_id=6373&mesg_id=6389 Even worse, he's threatening to show up on New Year's.

Oh well, the more of my on-line family that shows up, the merrier.

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. I do something like that for Christmas

I'll pick a movie to see on Christmas Day, first showing, then issue a general invitation to everyone I know. After the movie we do a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant with a nice holiday prix fixe. Typically, between six and ten people show up, but I've had 14 one year.

[Mabus]

14. A lot less stress and a lot more fun

We're into marathons. We'll start with season one of "The Sopranos" and watch them all. One time I had a "Twin Peaks" marathon. One of my favorites was the "Thin Man" and "Sam Spade" marathon. Nothing like the classics. The best part always seems to be the "MST3K"-type comments that become more and more prevalent as the day wears on. The other day we had a Lennon youtube marathon.

I've also had Risk, Monopoly and Jigsaw years. This year, I'm thinking it will be a youtube Christmas.

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. I just wish I had the space to entertain like that

Even with a (relatively) spacious apartment, I can't have more than three or four people over at one time.

The movie thing started with "Fellowship of the Ring" and, by the time the whole trilogy had been released, had become a tradition. It works out well because it is a chance to spend time with friends and be very low stress for everyone. And, we're careful to be nice and tip generously; both the theater and restaurant are always happy to see our group.

[Mabus]

18. We have a little house

We have one bathroom and four other rooms downstairs. We have a kitchen with a fridge, a washer, the oven, a sink and one six foot counter. The dryer and a spare fridge is on the back porch. One of the rooms is our bedroom and one of the rooms is our office. We can seat four comfortably in the living room. There's a lot of floor sitting, sitting in other rooms, people coming, people going, people on the front porch, people all over - if there's a flat surface available it either is used as a chair or a table, depending on the current need. Our buddy Roger dropped in for just a few hours. He has an annual ritual of going for a long bike ride along the nearby levees of the Kaw River.

Since there were only six of us last week I got to use a camp chair and everyone ate off dinner trays. If our friend Rex or our "brother from another mother" and his girlfriend had shown up, it would have been time to start bringing in the wrought iron chairs. Some times people just pop in on their way between visiting their relatives. We also have served as a last minute kid watcher. That's when we pull out the Nintendo or one of the Playstations. What can I say? We're middle-aged and immature. Oh yeah, did I mention we have three dogs. Two small ones and a large German Shepherd.

We're very lucky. We're part of many extended families. I've got a lot of sisters and brothers from "another mother," (our euphemism for our really close friends). So does my husband. We take in friends and family all the time. My husband and I are old hippie types. We help people however and whenever we can. It helps that we both came from large families and are used to having other people around.

[sui generis]

19. are you in or around Manhattan?

I may have been to your house a brazillian years ago -- :P

There are a lot of comfy old houses like that and some of my bestest favoritist friends in the world are "old hippie types", (and not the kind that drank the koolaid and now drive Expeditions and vote republican).

[Mabus]

20. Lawrence

I've lived all over Lawrence. You know what I'm talking about though.

LOL, one of my brothers is staying with us. He came downstairs late one night to find about ten people of us cramped into our bedroom. It started out as a quiet evening. My husband and I decided to sit on the front porch and relax. A friend of ours was driving by, saw us and decided to stop. A friend of his called and he told her he was sitting on our porch with us. She showed up a while later with a few people in tow. A couple of more people dropped in when they noticed the cars outside. And, since it is Lawrence, most every one showed up with at least a six pack of good beer and other party favors. My brother walked in and found about ten of us sitting on our bed and watching a movie. We had beer, chips, popcorn and the pizza was on its way. We were just hanging out having fun.

[cavebear]

9. White Thanksgiving

Our square dance club has its annual fly-in over T'giving weekend.
A bunch of our friends came up from the states to dance with us.
And it snowed.

[Dastard Stepchild]

10. Excellent....

I love spending time with my family. I am currently married, though I am bi, and they have always been supportive of me and my relationships with men and women.

In fact, my mother has become quite the activist in recent years. Look for her online... she lurks on DU as book lady.

:hi: