thanks! giving!

A lot of people very justifiably negative toward Thanksgiving, but when I was growing up it was never really associated with pilgrims and Native Americans. It was essentially just a fall/harvest festival with a ton of food that you shared with your family. Fairly removed from the historic context. Our newspaper ran that "Inj*n Summer" cartoon and doggerel every fall, about how life used to be super scary because there were a lot of Native Americans running about but now they're all dead so we're safe from them, whew. I still managed to mostly avoid the Thanksgiving/Genocide connection, though.

We're either going to be getting more air purifiers, ones for each room including the bathroom, or else are going to make those air purifiers out of box fans and furnace filters, and we're going to have one or two friends over for Thanksgiving. They both work from home, so they have minimal exposure to various germs and viruses. One of them is moving to Chicago from Texas and while she has friends up here she doesn't have FAMILY up here. So I'd like to do something nice and welcoming for her and for another friend who's here without a family.

I haven't made a big holiday meal in such a long time. Usually we eat at another family member's home, or we do something simple. I grew up helping my mom put together big Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter meals, though. Once you start prepping days before. It's been so long, though, that I've been poking around and looking at "how to host thanksgiving" guides. And, look... it's apparently common to bake your pies on Thanksgiving Day instead of the day before? So you're juggling side dishes, rolls, your main meaty course, soup, whatever... AND ALSO pies? No! Thank! You! Not that it matters this year... even though I make excellent pies I'm ordering them from a local pie place that does homeless outreach.


I'm planning on getting a pumpkin pie, a pecan pie, and a buttermilk pie if they're willing to do special orders instead of just having a set menu. My Texas friend mentioned that and I realized I haven't had it in an incredibly long time. If not, I'll get a cherry pie.

I'm going to do either a spiral cut ham or else a turkey breast, and lasagna or stuffed shells. I grew up with a vegetarian parent so we always had a vegetarian main along with the meat main.

Along with that I'm considering:
Mashed potatoes
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing (possibly stove-top stuffing as that's a comfort food for one of my guests)
Some kind of broccoli dish, either broccoli casserole or roast broccoli
Glazed carrots
Roasted Cauliflower
Brussels sprouts?
Rolls (possibly bolillo rolls from the bakery around the corner)

If I want to serve dinner at 2:00 or 3:00 should I invite people to come around noon for nibbles?
Deviled Eggs
Crudites
Cheese and Crackers
???

So much of this can be prepared ahead of time.

ok, but that's not how you say it

My husband, whose dad is from Czrna Gora, is watching a show on Serbia and damn this (English) host just is awful at saying Serbian names and words. It's like he's purposely choosing to put emphasis on the wrong syllable every single time. But what can you possibly expect from a people who pronounce "St. John" as "Sin Jin"? I ask you. So Nesko keeps yelling out corrections and the correct versions of these words sound so much better, even when I didn't know the correct version to begin with.

It showed some amazing public art, too, and a Serb who was interviewed talked about anti-fascism and stated that the roots of modern Europe grow from that. Which is a lovely sentiment but I'm not entirely sure it's true.

They also showed external shots of Communist housing blocks and look, they seem pretty efficient and utilitarian, if not beautiful. Greece managed to make it work.