Are we ready for the Thanksgiving Vent thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad cannot stop taking.

“Did you know that at <nameredacted> University - there is a flock of wild turkeys that chase the students across campus?”

Um, no why would we know or care? Oh, we should care because my cousin went to that university. Cousin graduated from college 20 years ago.

Hilarious. I love engaging with people like your dad. He sounds chatty but easygoing.

DP. I have a dad like this and he is impossible in large doses. Talks about stuff that is irrelevant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year I have my kids for thanksgiving. I’m not a holiday person, and overall hate cooking and cleaning, so usually for holidays we’ll just go out or get a pizza.

My new BF (who doesn’t have kids) grew up in a very broken family and later on foster care, so my holiday plan troubled him greatly. He likes the idea of the wholesome family during the holidays. So he said I can’t do pizza, don’t worry, he’ll handle thanksgiving dinner.

Then every night this week has talked about how stressed he is trying to plan dinner and asking me a million questions. Should we do ham or turkey? Should we cook or get it catered? Who should we buy it from? What do we do if it isn’t shipped in time?

Finally I was like omg, shut up, I’ll just handle it. So now here I am making a damn thanksgiving dinner I didn’t want to make so my BF can try to heal his childhood trauma.

And yes, I know I did this to myself.

At least on the plus side, I found a recipe for a one sheet pan thanksgiving dinner. So just a matter of sticking things on the pan over 3 hours. Hoping it’s not too difficult.

This is so sad overall for so many reasons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please link to one sheet pan Thanksgiving if it's linkable. Sounds interesting. We like Thanksgiving gimmick recipes at our house.

Already tried spatchcocking, Jennie-O herbed turkey breast, and tofurkey.

My dream is to have a turducken someday.

Wtf are all these

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just wish my sister would wear her hearing aids. None of us are elderly, so it's annoying to constantly repeat myself and have to listen to her phone ding loudly. I have asked and asked.

She’s looking at cognitive decline within a few years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sitting on the couch, half-watching the dog show before football starts at one. My mother, completely out of the blue, asks "Did I tell you how your cousin died?" And then proceeds to recount, with alarming smugness, how my cousin was on kidney dialysis after two decades of brutal drug use, had a port and injected drugs right into the port. "Didn't even manage to kill herself right away! Aunt Larlo had to go to the hospital and pull the plug!"

Jesus, Mom, WTF? And she wonders why Aunt Larlo, among others, wants nothing to do with her.

Your mom isn’t wrong though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one family member who is always late. I understand the drive can be long and don't demand anyone show up on Tuesday by a certain time, but I would appreciate a heads-up when they start the 4 hour drive so I know when to be home and how to time dinner. This person can't even be bothered to send a text when they leave. Every year this happens.

Anyway, after showing up late and chaotic and demanding something with protein, it always turns out that they also haven't packed enough for a 3 day visit so I end up doing a load of their laundry in the middle of all my hosting duties bc they don't know how to use my washing machine. And they always ask to borrow a million things that they forget (everything from tweezers to a winter coat this year). I know it's petty but since we don't ask this person to contribute to anything during the visit, it irks me that they can't even handle their personal items or even let me know when they are on the way.

I sympathize. My severely ADHD, and autistic, son, can never tell us when he's leaving, when he's arriving, etc. Of course he's always late. It's a socio-communication issue Thankfully, despite his severe ADHD, he doesn't forget too many things and remembers how to use the washing machine.

He should share his location with you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most self-absorbed member of my family (there's competition, but I think everyone except this person's parents would agree) announced a pregnancy. The good news is that the parents-to-be are thrilled. The bad news is ::gestures at the egotist::

I can’t follow this…
The egotist announced someone else’s pregnancy and wanted to make it about herself?

The egotist is pregnant. The good news is that they’re happy to be expecting. The bad news is that it’s hard to imagine such a self-absorbed person will make a good parent. -NP

NP and … PP is awful. Congratulations to the expecting couple!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL is what I call a pouncer. She hides in random seats downstairs and as soon as your foot hits the bottom step she scares the shit out of you with a “HELLO”. Then you get sucked into an hour long conversation about her long lost cousin before you can have a cup of coffee.

In addition, she doesn’t understand gender roles in 2025. “I need your help planning this trip”, “can you order me x”, “don’t worry about getting me anything for Xmas”…. I have repeatedly told her that her son can help her.

I would help plan the trip over the diagnose me conversation relatives keep trying to have!!! On repeat “sounds like you should see your doctor” goes in one ear and out the other. And no relative, no one in the house has ANY medical training or education! And it goes on and on and on….

I have lots of doctors in my family. So many ailments, past a certain age, cannot be effectively addressed: they are side effects of medication, or aches and pains from age and poorly-used bodies. Also, and more importantly, many elderly people just want to verbalize their issues, instead of having someone trouble-shoot them.

DP. I needed to hear this, thanks! My dad is generally healthy but he is 80, I guess I can stop listening to all the takes about his minor aches and pains. I was worried I had to maybe do something

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ILs sit in total silence. They speak to no one including their son and grandkids, unkess its answerin a question. Any and all socializing is torture for these people. I am indeed afraid that my kids have inherited this defect and as my husband ages he seems to be getting more like them.
My dad sits in blissful solitude because he "forgot" his hearing aids again.
My mom is telling my ILs various sob stories trying desperately to get a reaction or sympathy out of them. She will get nothing and end up tipsy on my deck, in tears, asking why I married into such a weird family.

They just want to be left alone! Why is your mother torturing them?! She can chit chat with someone else.

Introverted people like being at the fringes of the event, without engaging too much socially.

I would much rather have introverted people as guests than have people who cannot let a silence go unchallenged.

There's no one else to talk to. The joys of a small family. She's dying to chit chat with someone new and they won't do it.
Truly, these people go beyond introversion into rudeness. "Do you have any plans for summer?" "No." "How's your daughter in city?" Awkward pause "she's fine." "Are you looking forward to grandkids performance next weekend? He's been practicing a lot." Awkward pause as they look at each other.

I just want to know how they managed to procreate because they would need to talk first i am guessing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws are from a third world country and grew up without any sense of food safety. We are at their house and every single thing I've personally observed them prepping so far has some sort of food safety problem.

At this point I think I am only comfortable eating the things I am cooking myself, and not even the pie I brought, since they took it out of the fridge after I put it in and left it in the warm garage for 24 hours.

The interesting thing is that they probably won't get sick, if they've been eating foods with moderate bacterial loads all their lives. But YOU will, because your body is not used to it. This leads to a permanent difference of opinion about food safety. My husband escaped a third world country as a child, and his family is quite lax with food safety. His older brother ferments rice in the rice cooker and eats it (this is not recommended). DH has eaten rotten and moldy food with no side effects, except that one time when a rotten radish sent him into bradycardia. I, on the other hand, cannot eat like this, and I don't let him serve iffy dishes to the kids, who have westernized digestive systems.

Steak tips PP here. This is interesting. My DH definitely grew up in a home with looser ideas about food safety than I was raised with. He now follows recommended rules about food safety (his brother, on the other hand...) but I have a WAY more sensitive stomach than he does. I've gotten food poisoning twice in the years we've been together and both times it was after eating something he also ate (once after eating identical entrees at a restaurant, the second time after splitting a salad with him from the grocery store). He had no symptoms at all while I had the standard 48-72 hour effects, it was so baffling.

I've previously thought that maybe our family's approaches to food safety were the result of different constitutions. Like maybe my family is stricter about it because we are more sensitive to food issues as a group and therefore learned to be more careful. But the suggestion that maybe his stomach is stronger because he was exposed to more bacteria on food as a kid is interesting.

Neither of us are eating the steak tips though! Update: we have convinced BIL they don't work with today's meal. They are in the fridge pending a decision tomorrow. They will not be consumed, we're hoping he just forgets about them and we can toss them after he leaves. If necessary I'll pull out FDA guidelines. Ugh.

It’s too late now but you could also “accidentally” put them in the freezer and then oops they need to be defrosted first so no time to cook it before they leave!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a huge thing, but I've had major medical issues this year. I’m starting to feel better, but I have strong food aversions as a side effect of meds. I normally cook Thanksgiving dinner and love it, bur this year im ki d of just offering my recipes ans small amounts of help.

The only thing I was looking forward to and feel I could stomach is pumpkin pie which my niece baked yesterday. The first one she baked came out weird (seems likely she left out an ingredient). DH went out to get ingredients again last night, and she baked it again
I was exhausted so went to sleep while it baked. This morning I discovered they had left it out on the counter...there is no way with my health issues I can risk eating it...but everyone else seems fine, and the oven is needed for other things today

If it finished baking late at night of course it had to be left on the counter! Who puts a hot pie in the fridge. It’s perfectly safe to eat

[Anonymous]

Grow up, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a huge thing, but I've had major medical issues this year. I’m starting to feel better, but I have strong food aversions as a side effect of meds. I normally cook Thanksgiving dinner and love it, bur this year im ki d of just offering my recipes ans small amounts of help.

The only thing I was looking forward to and feel I could stomach is pumpkin pie which my niece baked yesterday. The first one she baked came out weird (seems likely she left out an ingredient). DH went out to get ingredients again last night, and she baked it again
I was exhausted so went to sleep while it baked. This morning I discovered they had left it out on the counter...there is no way with my health issues I can risk eating it...but everyone else seems fine, and the oven is needed for other things today

The pie is fine. When you buy them at the grocery store they are not refrigerated. The darn thing cooks for 50 minutes, it’s safe to eat.

I'm immunosuppressed and spent several months barely able to leave my house. I'm not taking the risk.

Dp.
What if other people have germs, isn’t it too risky to even be there? Pie or no pie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's only 3 of us and have no family rants, does our dog count? He is a big baby, who won't go out alone because of the plastic Giant bag trapped and billowing in my tree. It's high up and twisted in the branches and terrifying him. He's already confused about us home on a weekday.

It'll be okay, he's gonna get turkey! And for dessert, i bought what looks like whip cream but instead is a bacon flavored pup cup.

Dog doesn’t seem very smart sorry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a huge thing, but I've had major medical issues this year. I’m starting to feel better, but I have strong food aversions as a side effect of meds. I normally cook Thanksgiving dinner and love it, bur this year im ki d of just offering my recipes ans small amounts of help.

The only thing I was looking forward to and feel I could stomach is pumpkin pie which my niece baked yesterday. The first one she baked came out weird (seems likely she left out an ingredient). DH went out to get ingredients again last night, and she baked it again
I was exhausted so went to sleep while it baked. This morning I discovered they had left it out on the counter...there is no way with my health issues I can risk eating it...but everyone else seems fine, and the oven is needed for other things today

The pie is fine. When you buy them at the grocery store they are not refrigerated. The darn thing cooks for 50 minutes, it’s safe to eat.

I'm immunosuppressed and spent several months barely able to leave my house. I'm not taking the risk.

It’s not a risk but keep being dramatic if it makes you feel better

I can only imagine what fun for the rest is PP’s presence