Order a pre-made dinner (or two). Pick it up Wednesday.

I hate the ceremony in my family where the women cook for 2 days straight, and the men watch football, so if it were me, I'd invite your brother to take on Thanksgiving or, if they put you in charge, I'd find a restaurant that does a great Thanksgiving takeout.

Just make it as easy as possible. Pre-order a grocery order for the ingredients for a few traditional family sides that would make your parents happy. Then pre-order a meal to go for the core of the dinner. That way the turkey will come in a disposable pan, etc. Where is the location? People can probably guide you to the best local grocery or store that would have a meal to go if you give that.

Anonymous wrote:Get the premade catered dinner and then concentrate on making just a few dishes special to your family.

In my family the special things are cranberry-orange relish and a relish tray with watermelon pickles. We can do without both but they are homey touches.

We had to go with grocery store catering at my mom's house due to workload on aging in place parents. It's really worked out. Now I look forward to it.

We do this every year because we do Thankgiving away from home. It started with just our immediate family and now we are up to 5 condos in a timeshare who all do it together. We get almost the entire meal premade and then each household makes the one side that they feel like they need at the table (or just something that feels fun to offer). We always make the cornbread pudding that my mom served and I just pack the couple of ingredients that might be hard to find and then grab the rest when we pick up the larger meal from the store.

We’ve done this the last few years, making everything in an airbnb, and it’s been fine. It’s true we sometimes check in the listing if there’s space for us to eat together at a table and if reviews say the kitchen was under equipped or well equipped but it’s always worked out well.

Order a complete meal.

Instead of stressing on Wednesday over cooking and shopping, find a fun family activity to do in the place you are visiting.

We have done thanksgiving in rentals and you need to go into it with a focus on the togetherness rather than the details of a traditional fully homecooked meal.

Even Walmart does pre ordered grocery pickups so have that ready. Ask the rental owner in advance if there is any particular serving dish or utensil that you think you’d want.

Agree to get a precooked turkey or turkey breast, pie and anything else that would be really labor and ingredient intensive.

We do Thanksgiving away from home every year and I recommend getting most/all premade. Seating is not a huge deal, but your rental is likely to be missing a lot of the equipment you'll need.

You’re overthinking this. It won’t be a perfect thanksgiving dinner, but you can do it. People might need to sit on the couch and eat with their plates on their laps. You will have to improvise some.

Anonymous wrote:Get the premade catered dinner and then concentrate on making just a few dishes special to your family.

In my family the special things are cranberry-orange relish and a relish tray with watermelon pickles. We can do without both but they are homey touches.

We had to go with grocery store catering at my mom's house due to workload on aging in place parents. It's really worked out. Now I look forward to it.

We do this every year in FL. BBQ places sometimes do a nice enough catered meal that is a step above grocery store. Then we make a few simple sides too and call it a day.

I think the bigger issue than finding the ingredients is what kitchen utensils, baking dishes and serving platters you will have in the rental. Most airbnb type places I’ve stayed in would be missing some key things for making thanksgiving dinner for 10ish people.

Does the assisted living facility not have good food? IME these places usually go all out for holidays when families will be in town. Otherwise order from a local store or restaurant. Way too much stress.