U.S. readers: how was your Thanksgiving? Did you spend it with family? Alone? With friends? Did you eat yourself sick and watch football?

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

Answers

i spent it with family - my mother's sister and her family, a cousin up from georgia tech for the weekend, and my grandmother. i ate too much turkey and liked the gravy a little too well, but then i got to go see dogma and eat at hooters for the first time in my life.

our waitress didn't have very impressive breasts, in my opinion.

and that was my thanksgiving.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

Ok, this has nothing to do with Thanksgiving (we have to go to Rio Linda for thanksgiving, that should just about answer that question.)

WHAT is that white furry thing hanging out of Doc's mouth???

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

That white furry thing would be Doc's throat. It does look like something hanging out of his mouth, though, doesn't it?

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

I guess you weren't here when the real rules for croquette were announced:

(1) Don't hit each other with the mallets.

(2) Don't throw the balls at each other.

Glad you had a good time. We did, too.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

Actually, except for watching the IRON GIANT, I can think of few Thanksgivings that sucked more. We kept on waiting for a phone call from a visiting relative (which never came till thenext morning) so we didn't do anything for Thanksgiving, did it all the day after.

Al of Nova Notes.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

I had a cruddy thanksgiving, but it's my least favorite holiday so I wasn't expecting much, so that's okay. We spent it with his family, most of whom were being annoying. The nephews were quite obnoxious (a top that played tunes had to be confiscated) and I didn't like any of the food.

Ain't I a stinker?

I was a good sport about it all, though. Even Pat said so.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

It was nice. I've been avoiding them since '91 when my Mom died and my son decided he wasn't speaking: we've gone to daughter's house or (last year) to inlaws, and not had them here. This year, my husband has been ill and is getting better. We got a call from the non-speaking son. A couple of things to be thankful for. It was a quiet day here, just us and a friend, but I could learn to love that.

Yes, we ate a lot, though I don't really get too fancy with pigout food, and yes Rich watched football.

I scrupulously avoid shopping on the day after, but the tree lighting did look nice. Mayor Serna's 9-month-old grandson "helped" flip the switch.

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

I sat around online until afternoon. We went to Scott's Seafood, met grandparents, had yummy food. Came home. Went online again until about 4 am.

Then made turkey on Saturday, so we can have leftovers.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 1999

Once my family arrived it was just fine.

We went to Sabs' mom's house and my parents were coming down around 2pm on Thursday.

We drove up on Wednesday evening and got up around 8am -- which is EARLY for us non-morning people -- to get the turkey started so it would be done in time.

The entire morning swung back and forth between being fine and being full of tension and bitchiness.

Sabs' parents are in the middle of a divorce and his mom is really stressed out, so she was trying to keep herself "up" by doing as much as possible.

I didn't realize how down she was at the time, or I wouldn't have been so stubborn about trying to have a traditional family Thanksgiving which of course, involves everyone helping out in the kitchen and palling around and stuff -- something that Sabs' family isn't all that familiar with, being French and all.

So Florence's determination to do everything and my determination to keep things traditional met head on like two rushing trains that had us sniping at each other on the proper way to make gravy (she wanted to include the giblets and use flour, I'd rather be hung out to dry than feed giblets to my family and we've always used corn starch)

However we were both also determined not to let our petty control freak natures get the better of us, so it never degenerated into an out and out fight.

So, like I said up above, it was fine once my family arrived. By then we had a truly impressive array of food ready, including a walnut oil/apple cider basted turkey with two kinds of stuffing, yukon gold mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, green beans, butternut and buttercup squash, mushrooms in red wine, cranberry relish and the most kick-ass gravy I have ever made (without giblets, with flour)

There was lots of cider and wine flowing and my mom brought TWO of her apple pies (the second of which I have steadily been eating for breakfast for the past few days)

So it started out rocky but ended on a high note.

Oh yeah, and we took Pearl with us and she just LOVED having a whole house to play in, so we're going to try to move into a house again.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 1999

Thanksgiving was a montha ago for me. If you dont know why you are an idiot. I AM CANADIAN!!! Peace Xeney

-- Anonymous, November 29, 1999

Peaceful and quiet. We played computer games all morning while the turkey cooked, had turkey w/potatoes & salad for lunch, then went out to see Toy Story 2. Not as good as Toy Story, but that one was good enough to leave plenty of room for good movies below it. Dinner was just a little more elaborate, nobody ate too much (I'm on a diet, and I have to use threats of physical violence to get my kids to eat), then more computer games.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 1999

On Thursday, I visited my Mom- she has Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home. We (me, my Mom, and my two brothers) had Thanksgiving lunch at Mom's place- the food was good and they have a room where families can eat together. It's a really homey place... cloth napkins and china every day...

Friday thru Sunday, I went on a (mostly) silent retreat at a monastery. Amazing. A few things I learned:

1. Monks are people too. 2. Extended silence is not scary or boring. 3. My life needs more of this.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 1999