Things not to do at family dinners:
1. Don't call out, hey bro, toss me another dinner roll. A half dozen buttered buns will be lobbed at you from around the table. Your MIL will not approve.
2. If you are the newest member of the family-- bf, gf, in-law-- do not allow yourself to be distracted by the person on your immediate left, thus leaving your plate unguarded while the person on your right steals your chicken leg. A Family Ritual.
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It's cold, ( well not that cold), we are doing TG planning by phone instead of going to one or the other's house. So far we have decided dinner will be served at 3 tables, living room, dining room for 20 people plus assorted wee kids. We have set up the Traveling Church Basement tables in the basement previously. This works the best as the family room is the largest room in the house. Issue this year, oldest BIL can't do stairway and another is recovering from surgery. This would make one SIL very happy. One year she sniffed, why eat downstairs when you have a perfectly good dining room Did she not learn to count?. Special regrets, she is not coming this year.
We will remove one tv from the living room tomorrow, to help make room for table set up. Dx said she cleaned her whole house this week, it's done!
Obviously, she doesn't have cats! With the tv gone, the dog will not be in the living room either, as she likes to nap curled up next to her Mom.
Chairs, we need more chairs, even after I bring some folding chairs to combine. We just saw Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins. One of her eccentricities is she collected dining room chairs, not to be sat on. I thought hmm, Dx "collects" chairs but I let that sail right by when discussing the movie after.
And Phone books. For the little kids. We used to be inundated by mult phone companes. About gives me a hernia carrying those out to the recycling. Now I think we don't receive any. Debating whether to ask some to bring booster seats or not and just let parents wing it.
So far, my "to do " list is surprisingly short. Mostly bring larger kettles, roasting pans, etc from basement storage and help get out serving platters, bowls utensils from the china cabinet. Tues or Wed I get to roast turkey parts and make turkey stock for gravy. Dx has a master list she keeps from year to year. Nevertheless, I'm waiting for the real surprise to come, there always is one somewhere.
I'm also waiting for Dx to email me a copy of what everyone is bringing, so we both can decide what we need to fill in the blanks with. We will make 2 turkeys, stuffing, one vegetarian, mashed potatoes and gravy.
TG dinner is at 3 pm, which means we will eat by about 4. That seems reasonable. I could start right now.