Where are you going for Thanksgiving?

[sonny]

I think I'm still eating leftovers from Last Year.

In any event, any exciting travel plans or strange rituals you guys and gals go through on the big day?

I myself will be taking Mrs. Sonny and the Sonny kids to my parents house in Sunbury OH, where My entire Family will be under the same roof for Thanksgiving for the first time in years.

Besides a turkey, my mother always boils a ham in Ginger Ale. Sounds good huh? Well, you would be wrong. She always ends up throwing 7/8ths of a boiled ham out, but she makes it everytime she hosts Turkey day. Strange indeed.

[GAC]

So far, we've got no plans (just like last year). And it really bugs me because I come from huge families on both sides which had get-togethers for the Holidays. We'd always spend Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family, and Christmas with my Mom's.

After the Thanksgiving dinner, when we weren't watching football, then we'd all be in the backyard playing it with the multitude of cousins. Fond, fond, memories.

And of course after getting married and having kids of our own the get-togethers became more of the immediate family. We use to go down to my brother's house for Thanksgiving (we both have 3 kids the same ages), spend the night, and then the women would get up the next morning for Black Friday. That now has come to a halt.

I come from not only a very large family, but an extroverted one. My wife comes from just the opposite.

So yeah, I'm blaming her for killing the tradition.

I'm trying to talk her into going down and seeing her parents and sister, who live north of Cincy (West Chester), and going out to eat; but she is not keen on that idea either.

So me and the kids may go without her. Boy that won't look good.... going down to see HER family and she stays home!

[redsmetz]

I've had a number of traditions that have changed over the years.

When I was still single, out on my own, and my youngest brother and sister we still living at home (I'm about eight and 13 1/2 years old than them), my folks got a dog. Hence I couldn't come in the house (I know, I should have taken the message!), so I started having Thanksgiving with some friends and their little boys from church. The following year, her younger sister moved in after grad school and we began dating. Following our engagement (which we announced on Thanksgiving of 1980), we continued to have Thanksgiving with them, even though they moved to Akron at the end of 1980. As our families grew, we'd alternate between Cincy and Akron until about the mid 90's when they (drum roll) got a dog (I must wear out my welcome!) [In all seriousness, both my folks and my wife's sister struggled about getting a dog knowing it would impact my ability to visit. When my folks' dog finally died after old age, I lived in the same neighborhood; mom called me to take care of it. I came over and buried the dog, my younger sister called me and told me I probably couldn't wait to get her I the ground! - but I digress]

After we stopped alternating Cincinnati and Akron, we went back to having Thanksgiving with my family with a few exceptions (when my wife's sister and her family moved to Dallas for a year, we had dinner in Jeff City, their hometown. Another year we went to DC when our oldest daughter lived there for a year). A few years ago when my mom was going in the hospital around Thanksgiving, we celebrated the Sunday before. It worked out so well for folks who needed to balance Thanksgiving with their in-laws that we've kept up the tradition. Following that, those who aren't traveling out of town to other families will gather back at my folks for a small feat.

This year, we went to my sister-in-law's house (my late brother Jim's wife), the current family gathering place because it's so big (but which we've had to have a bit of a hiatus from because her daughter had gotten - you guessed it - a dog). She has since remarried, another guy named Jim who is getting used to our gigantic family (there were eight of us, spouses, my folks, and about 20+ grandkids). Plus we've always had various friends who will join the larger group. Usually we have a guy from Kenya who lived with my other brother and his wife while he attended XU, who has really become part of the family since both his parents and other family members, sadly, have died back home. He thinks of my brother and sister-in-law as his parents.

This year my youngest brother and his wife invited a young couple from Hong Kong to dinner. They met the wife in the airport at Atlanta when flying back from North Carolina. She was moving to the states having completed her doctorate back home and her husband has been studying engineering at UC. Mom and Dad insisted that they come again on Thursday, if they don't have other plans.

It's a large brood with more coming as the grandkids are bringing girlfriends and boyfriends (none are married yet). They range in age from nearly three to over thirty, and my one nephew's girlfriend has a five year old and he and the two youngest cousins zipped all around the house and wrestled with their older cousins. Card games were played, movies were watched and lots and lots of eating.

One tradition foodwise must be mentioned. My dad, now 80, always makes a long revered family recipe, my grandothers and who knows, maybe older, called Chocolate Ice Box Cake. As some of you know, a refrigerator in the day was known as an "Ice Box" with a larger area inside that held a block of ice which then refrigerated the compartment. Enough of the history lesson, I must describe this dessert.

Dad lines a square pan with lady fingers, a soft cake like concoction, bottom and sides. He then melts chocolate chips in a double boiler and adds whipping cream, beats that for the filling. Then he tops that with genuine whipped cream (we're not talking from a can, folks). That then is placed in the "ice box" and refrigerated until ready to serve. It is consumed to great "ah's" of delight. I'll ask Dad for the sacred family recipe if anyone wants it.

As for Thanksgiving Day itself, we will head to Atlanta this year to have dinner with our younger daughter who is serving as a Jesuit Volunteer down there. She lives in a house with five other girls. Two of the girls will be gone, but joining us will be a former JV and her brother. They'll be getting a turkey and we'll stuff that with dressing (my grandmother's recipe also), fresh cranberry sauce, pumpkin pies, and other assorted gastronomic delights. We'll head back home on Sunday in time, we hope, for my son to catch a ride back to OSU.

We'll watch, as we always do, what we call "The Macy's Day Parade" (who knows where that started) and my wife will listen to the first Christmas music. A good time will, hopefully, be had for all.

[KronoRed]

I think I'll walk down the hall, into the dining room, might make a stop in the kitchen

[goreds2]

I am visiting a friends house in town. I have to also take my laptop as I have to monitor the IBM iSeries at work for error messages etc.

[SunDeck]

We're staying here- people are coming to us this year. It's nice to not be traveling for Thanksgiving.

[15fan]

Flying home to Columbus tonight.

I'm going to tell my folks that future Thanksgiving celebrations in Ohio will be held in the summer. Thanksgiving celebrations south of the Ohio River will commence at the generally appointed date in late November.

[BRM]

Nowhere. And no one is coming here. This will be the first Thanksgiving in a long time where it will be just the four of us. I'm looking forward to it.

[RedsFan75]

Over the River and through the woods!

My daughter is bringing her boyfriend home from college and we're heading to my folks, just a short drive away deeper into the hills here!

[NorrisHopper30]

Destin Florida, I go every year (normally on saturday ) but I am going late this year because UC's schedule is different than my old high school's. The rest of my family has been there since Saturday and I fly down tomorrow morning, can't wait!

[Emin3mShady07]

I get to go home and eat a great meal with my family, first time since I left school that I will be home again. I like going to school 600 miles away, but there are some disadvantages.

[GAC]

I think I'll walk down the hall, into the dining room, might make a stop in the kitchen

Need a map? :

[KronoRed]

Need a map? :

Nah, got GPS

[OnBaseMachine]

Nowhere. And no one is coming here. This will be the first Thanksgiving in a long time where it will be just the four of us. I'm looking forward to it.

You, Dusty, Corey, and Paul?

[Highlifeman21]

You, Dusty, Corey, and Paul?

Cyclone's dream dinner date is Juan Castro, Eric Milton and Corey Patterson.