Thanksgiving at sister-in-law’s was a great family gathering of 13, with her sons, their spouses, 4 grown grandkids and a (maybe soon fiance) girlfriend of one. The surprise to us was that they’d decided on ham as the main (no turkey) and no potatoes or gravy. I brought whole wheat beer bread and made cinnamon-sugar spiced pecans the evening we arrived, and helped SIL make broccoli salad and BIL baked beans. Most of the sides and a pie were made by sons/spouses. We had a wealth of sides - no one went hungry including the vegetarian granddaughter: Cold : veggies & hummus, devilled eggs, canned cranberry sauce, jello-fresh cranberry sauce, broccoli/red grapes/cashews salad, pasta salad, beer bread, King’s Hawaiian rolls. Hot: corn casserole, green bean casserole, dressing, sweet potatoes w/marshmallows, BIL’s baked beans. Homemade pies: apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, four-berry, with vanilla ice cream optional. Sweet snacks: glazed Chex w/ M&M’s, my spiced pecans, Andes mints.
Conversation, card games and much laughter after the meal, then leftovers were packaged up and taken by all for next-day enjoyment. My husband took on the task of loading the dishwasher twice to take care of almost all the cleanup, with sons/grandkids handling the unloading. Workload and enjoyment for the day felt fully-shared.
We don’t have phone/internet coverage at their rural home, and they choose to have only what they can get via a limited cellphone carrier, and broadcast TV with an inadequate antenna for their river-valley location. We like to visit them, but appreciate regaining our connectivity about 10 miles from their home.
