anybody else having a lonely pasta out of a can t-day dinner?

[KG]

or maybe it'll be chili? yum! :P


actually, had the traditional 'turkey dinner at gramma's house' thing a couple weeks ago to accomodate family travels. and another my SIL is having one today, but wasn't up to driving 4 hours back for it.

[stuntcat]

1. me!

Mine was a dressed up package, with Thai spices in a bag to add. But then all I had to do was add water and microwave it! :headbang:

[FloridaJudy]

2. Nope.

I'm eating Chinese take-out. Chinese restaurants are the only ones you can count on to stay open on holidays.

But I did have a pre-holiday feast with friends last night.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

3. Beat me to it

LOL--Chinese takeout is traditional. I just called in my order for Gen. Tso's tofu and was killing time until it's ready. I'm firmly in fogey territory, though, where you can't dilly dally because even the Chinese call it a day early on holidays here--as in you'd better not count on heading out for a normal dinner hour or you'll end up getting frozen pizza at the freakin' WM because that's the only thing open. (Took me two years to learn this lesson. *sigh*)

[FloridaJudy]

17. Here the Chinese restaurants

Take the day off after Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, whatever. Why not? Most of them are Buddhist or Confucian or Taoist, and it's not their holiday. I used to volunteer to work on holidays at the hospital for the same reason.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

4. I am in the process

of making a casserole out of the leftover ham and whatever else I have laying around.
We decided to have our T-day dinner last Saturday in advance of the Big Game (TTU vs OU) which turned out to be the turkey after all.

[peruban]

5. (sigh)

We don't do Thanksgiving Day around here so I woke up early this morning, had three cups of espresso and four cups of regular coffee, then downed about six or seven valium. I posted a few threads, added to a few more and then passed out for about seven hours, woke up, and found myself alone in a dark house. No idea where the folks are but it's not like it matters since, again, we don't do turkey day. They're probably at bible study or some shit. Luckily, we had a box of stove top stuffing in the cabinet and I microwaved that for myself so I'm kind of celebrating. I prefer eating vegetarian, anyway, so I don't exactly miss the turkey or ham or whatever.

Now I'm watching dl'd episodes of House on my 'puter and feeling kinda bummed. At least I have my dogs here in bed with me for the company. I think I'll watch a few more episodes and then down another few valium and diphenhydramine to knock myself out into tomorrow.

I hate holidays.

[harmonicon]

6. why don't you celebrate thanksgiving?

I can't think of any reason not too... that's the reason that it's one of my favourite holidays - no religious connotations, little or no capitalism, just spending time with friends and family eating good food.

[peruban]

7. It's a Jehovah's Witness thing.

They don't celebrate any holidays, not even Thanksgiving. I myself converted to Catholicism when I was 21 so I don't have restrictions like that but when you live with Jehovah's Witnesses it's pretty much just another day. Hence, they're off to their regular Thursday night bible study and I'm eating microwaved stuffing out of a mixing bowl.

[harmonicon]

8. I didn't know that

I knew about not celebrating lots of holidays, but I didn't realize that it would include thanksgiving. Hmm.... sorry about that.

[old mark]

24. peruban: I used to work with a woman who was a Witness.

I really didn't care for her much, so I never failed to wish her "merry christmas" and other appropriate holiday greetings and watch her grind her teeth...

Have a good weekend anyway.

mark

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

9. Capitalism is creeping in around Thanksgiving

In the form of "Christmas creep."

And religious folks love to claim Thanksgiving as one of their own, without realizing that the holiday is at least compatible with all (or almost all) faiths and traditions, not just traditional Christianity. This includes atheists and agnostics.

[peruban]

10. It's because it's a nationalist holiday.

And Jehovah's Witnesses are conscientious objectors when it comes to any sort of patriotic displays of celebration.

[harmonicon]

11. it's nationalistic?

I thought it was just a time to celebrate having a good year, and giving thanks for having gone through another year along with your family.

[peruban]

12. You must have missed a day or two in grade school, then.

It's a celebration of the success of the first English pilgrims' survival in the "new" world. Can you name another nation that celebrates Thanksgiving? Didn't think so. It's nationalist at its core, though it's taken on many meanings for many people, the pilgrims' survival is what's really being celebrated here.

Funny, I wonder at what point we stopped sharing with the natives and just started taking whatever we wanted. I always heard that to native americans this day is more of a day of mourning than celebration.

[bicentennial_baby]

13. Um, Canada:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada)

Thanksgiving, i.e. the festival at this time of year, pre-dates the Pilgrims. Many, many cultures have long celebrated the harvest season and its bounty in a number of ways.

:)

[peruban]

15. Canada celebrates their version of Thanksgiving in October, not today.

And it didn't become a national holiday in the U.S. until 1941. Thus, we call it a "national" holiday. Even if you consider that it's a modern version of pre-judeochristian harvest festivals that still excludes it from Jehovah's Witnesses on religious grounds since harvest and fertility rituals fall into the same pagan category.

I'm not defending, here, I'm just sayin'. Ask any Jehovah's Witness yourself, you'll get the same answer.

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

22. The seasonal position of U.S. Thanksgiving is bizarre...

I don't know of any pre-Christian harvest festivals that take place in late November, at least not in the relatively cool climates like NW Europe or the northern 2/3 of the United States. Canada's date - the second week of October - makes more sense for Canada than the fourth week of November does for the US, despite the difference in climate. You'd have to go south into the warm-temperate zones - places like California, the Deep South, southern Europe and the Near East - for a late November harvest festival to make any sense. In other words, climates that also are too warm to EVER get snow at Christmas time!

And of course this seasonal incorrectness makes itself shown in the literal sense: the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in NYC has plenty of fall harvest decor but also plenty of snowflakes and general wintery stuff too. Some of the holiday banners in Safeway have both fall leaves and snowflakes on them.


I, for one, have long felt that Thanksgiving should be moved up at least one week earlier, possibly two. That way there would be less wintry weather and fewer travel delays, and more remaining autumn leaves would make it feel more like a legitimately autumnal holiday. And with the Christmas shopping season coming earlier and earlier, it would make sense - that way we don't have fall and winter themes overlapping.

[harmonicon]

14. that was my point...

that it was about people making it through a year, in the case of the Pilgrims, hundreds of years before the US existed, so I don't see how it's nationalistic. It's a celebration of harvest, and many countries have something much like it, but not all call it thanksgiving.

[peruban]

16. But it wasn't celebrated until it became a "national" holiday in 1941.

No other country does this today, only here in the U.S. Oh, and see my other post just above for the "harvest celebration" response.

[Art_from_Ark]

23. Japan has a holiday that has "Thanksgiving" in its English name

Labor-Thanksgiving Day, to be exact, which was just this past Monday.

[latebloomer]

21. Why don't they celebrate birthdays, or Christmas?

And why couldn't my husband's JW great aunt come to our wedding?

[HopeFor2006]

18. Holidays can be very depressing

I had dinner with a couple of friends to avoid being alone today. Don't worry- it's almost over.

[peruban]

19. Thanks. There is some good news, though.

I just found some Sara Lee chocolate cake in the back of the fridge so, awww yeah!!

[HopeFor2006]

20. It doesn't get any better than that!

:hug:

[bikebloke]

25. I had soup out of a can.

Since it was a holiday, I opened it with some extra flair. A litle twist of the wrist and some body english.