Thanksgiving Day

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Usually it is the nucleus but this year I have invited a couple of homeless people to join us…
 
When we got married my mom suggested that we have Thanksgiving at our house–that way both families can come and we’re not in a position to have to choose when and where to be. It works out great!! I cook something, they all bring something and we just graze, watch football, laugh, talk, and have a wonderful time!
 
This year we are celebrating with our “Army Family” - neighbors and friends. A few weeks back I was thinking about taking the family to Paris and EuroDisney, but… you know! :eek:
 
This is the first Thanksgiving I’ll have to work…we’re going to have Thanksgiving the day before. 🙂
 
visiting DD this week, we will to the dinner thing this weekend, but at a restaurant to give her a break. DH and I will go to San Antonio for the lighting of the Riverwalk, visit the missions, shop, sightsee, do some birdwatching at the new Audobon center. If we stay home, our Winter Texan RV park has a dinner, management provides Turkey, residents bring side dishes & desserts. About 400 people eat in shifts. We can also help serve dinners to the poor at a choice of sites. Depends on if we feel like driving and can get reservations in SA.

when we were still at home with kids we never had time to drive all the way to relatives, in any case DH spend the day watching football so we left him with a TV dinner and kids and I visited relatives who run a Salvation Army shelter to serve dinner to the poor and the shelter residents. We did this for about 14 years, now grandkids are carrying on the tradition.
 
We have done multiple extended-family dinners for both Christmas and Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, now we can’t make all the family gatherings since my family lives half-way across the country from DH’s family. His side of the family does the whole extended-family dinner things for all the holidays too, so we are doomed to missing some of the family members. Because we live out of state from both families, we will try to attend a different extended-family dinner with each side of the family at different holidays. It is just too much logistically to see both families over the same holiday!
 
when kids were home we alternated between staying home or visiting parents in either IN or MI one year Thanksgiving in Detroit, Christmas at home, Easter in Gary, and vice versa.
 
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contemplative:
Usually it is the nucleus but this year I have invited a couple of homeless people to join us…
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That is so very nice. In the past I’ve wanted to invite those who would otherwise be spending the day alone, but I just don’t know how to go about it, since I don’t know anyone like that personally? Do you suppose my parish would know of some widows or widowers who don’t have family nearby who’d like to share the day with my noisy, but loving family? (My parish is HUGE though… I wonder who I’d ask?)

Also, what do the Priests do on holidays? Do you think they all eat together or do they get invited out?
 
carol marie:
That is so very nice. In the past I’ve wanted to invite those who would otherwise be spending the day alone, but I just don’t know how to go about it, since I don’t know anyone like that personally? Do you suppose my parish would know of some widows or widowers who don’t have family nearby who’d like to share the day with my noisy, but loving family? (My parish is HUGE though… I wonder who I’d ask?)
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Besides widows and widowers, there may be never-married singles with no family in their new home state that you could ask. There have been times when due to snowstorms I nearly didn’t make it home for Christmas, given the drive through the snow belt of Northeast Ohio, the snow belt of Erie, PA, to a final destination of the snow belt around Buffalo, NY.

If I hadn’t decided to drive through treacherous weather and just do a lot of praying through the white-out blizzard conditions (it’s worse at night), I could easily have ended up celebrating alone in my apartment with potentially no holiday meal. When your best friends are a Jehovah’s Witness who doesn’t celebrate Christmas and a Methodist with children of her own in different parts of the country, there aren’t many options.

It seems that widows, widowers and marrieds get most of the attention in parishes, while singles tend to be invisible. I’ve joined a new parish today in the hopes that a fresh start may help my particular situation.

I would suggest that parishes might start voluntary lists consisting of parish families willing to host singles/widows/widowers who would be interested in sharing a meal, and singles/widows/widowers wishing to be so adopted for a holiday.

~~ the phoenix
 
Hi Phonex,

I think a sign up list is a great idea because I’ve also worried that I’d extend an invitation to someone who’s idea of fun isn’t spending the holdiay with virtual strangers and their (noisy) kids… and then I’d be putting them on the spot & they’d be stuck making up an excuse? But if my parish had a notice in the bulletin asking for both sides to sign up… then it would just be a matter of matching the individuals with the families. I wonder who I’d suggest this to?
 
carol marie:
That is so very nice. In the past I’ve wanted to invite those who would otherwise be spending the day alone, but I just don’t know how to go about it, since I don’t know anyone like that personally? Do you suppose my parish would know of some widows or widowers who don’t have family nearby who’d like to share the day with my noisy, but loving family? (My parish is HUGE though… I wonder who I’d ask?)

Also, what do the Priests do on holidays? Do you think they all eat together or do they get invited out?
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I am very sorry carol marie.:o
You are very sweet and you articulate my true desires every holiday.
I am sorry because when I posted that remark I was not being completely forthright about what was happening.
My MIL & FIL sold their home and are in the process of building a new one…technically they are homeless…I have invited my homeless in-laws…they plan on coming.

As far as real homeless go…your safest best bet is to volunteer in a soup kitchen…I know many people who do this.
You can also volunteer to drive holiday food baskets to people in need. Many people do this.

Another idea is to see if there is a need to have a Thanksgiving dinner in your parish hall for those who don’t have families to be with.

As far as priest go…I believe most but not all have their own blood families to return to.
 
Dear carol marie,

My goodness! As a single, the only time I get to experience being around children is with my nieces and nephews at holiday times … I don’t know how “most” people feel about noisy kids at holidays, all I know is I’m the mischievous aunt who’ll do things like buy birthday party noisemakers to hand out to all of them at once when I come from out of state to visit. 😃 Other people’s kids can’t be Too Much different from the relatives I only get to see at holidays, eh? (Of course, this is only speaking for myself.)

Am not too good with the ins-and-outs of parish workings, but I would try to approach my favorite priest or the pastor (who hopefully is a favorite too!) about families adopting people into their homes for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. To me personally, it just feels so much warmer and welcoming an environment than an impersonal soup kitchen or parish hall. I suppose my favorite priest might then tell me to see someone at the rectory with the idea about putting it in the bulletin, but it’d be nice to go to the rectory office and be able to say that Father So-and-So supports the idea.

As for the virtual strangers stuff … since I was unfortunately a virtual stranger at my parish for ten years despite my becoming involved in different ministries, I have just joined a new parish today. Realistically, given what I’ve already observed, the best I can hope for will be better sermons with strong orthodox doctrine and better songs … which is actually far more important than seeking merely human friendship, of course. They all like to stand now after Communion in both the parish I’m leaving and the parish I’ll be going to, so I’ll be one of the obvious few who continues the practice of kneeling. Still, I will keep myself open to the prospect that this new parish will be friendlier than the one I’m leaving, and do my best meanwhile to be worthy of being a parish member myself, so that I won’t have to spend my entire life as a virtual stranger.

In any case, I think my new parish will be on my list of things to be thankful for at Thanksgiving this year. 👍
His Majesty is moved with compassion at having seen the soul suffering so long through its yearning for Him, and seems to be causing the spark of which we have already spoken to grow within it, so that, like the phoenix, it catches fire and springs into new life. – Interior Castle, St. Teresa of Avila
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~~ the phoenix
 
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contemplative:
I am very sorry carol marie.:o
You are very sweet and you articulate my true desires every holiday.
I am sorry because when I posted that remark I was not being completely forthright about what was happening.
My MIL & FIL sold their home and are in the process of building a new one…technically they are homeless…I have invited my homeless in-laws…they plan on coming.
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Ohhhhhhhh. I see. I thought you meant “actual” homeless people… that’s who I’d love to share my holiday with. But you meant your mother & father in law? Nevermind… I’m not THAT good of a Christian! 😉
 
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