Thanksgiving was historically a bit of a melee for our family. A lot of that had to do with the fact that, depending on the year, my son's birthday is either the day after or within two days of Thanksgiving. What that meant for me is that I spent like five solid days of baking, cooking, party planning, doing dishes, etc.
You know what? It wasn't really that much fun for me. In fact, it was kinda miserable and not really what a holiday should be about, especially one that revolves around gratitude.
So I did the natural thing and reevaluated how I thought about Thanksgiving. I have no problems with traditions (peer pressure from dead people😁) nor do I dislike an old-fashioned turkey dinner, but to be honest, the more I thought about it, Thanksgiving is about celebrating what we are grateful for, the dinner itself a historic traditional remembrance of our ancestors coming together in a spirit of thankfulness, and I'm sure those same ancestors wouldn't really give a whiff about what food we ate.
Further still, I love to make new traditions, and instead of busting myself into Kat crumbles crafting a stressful feast only to have to do a party right after for 30-50 people every year, I talked with my family about an idea that had blossomed, and Fun Family Feast was born.
The FFF was simple in its makeup, everyone got to choose their favorite dish, and that would be the menu. We would then lay around in Big Lard Pants as my youngest called lounge wear when he was four, and play games, eat our favorite food, watch movies, and enjoy just being with each other. That's it. No stress, no drama, just mama hanging with her peeps.
And you know what? This is our fourth year doing the FFF, and I wouldn't go back to the old way of doing things for anything. I love celebrating the spirit of gratitude in our own way. I mean just check out this menu:
Sesame chicken with steamed rice
Chicken lo mein
Crab Rangoon won tons
Grilled Bacon cheeseburgers
Mini calzones (and pizza rolls and pizza, I made a lot of dough lol)
Baos (Chinese pork buns)
Sausage stuffing
Japanese cheesecake
Snickers Caramel Apple Salad (Recipe below)
My friends, it was beyond a yum fest, and everything (with the exception of the baos and cheesecake that my nephews brought) was made from scratch! We had so much fun prepping the food the day before and day of, and since everyone picked and made their own dish, one person wasn't stuck doing all the work, which made this mom feel very thankful and celebratory indeed. It definitely felt like a holiday😊.
We use the same formula every year for the FFF, some years we order food from local restaurants and reheat it the next day, other years we do a hybrid of that approach, but in the end the spirit of the new tradition endures.
Nothing brings me joy like hearing about families doing their own thing in their own very unique way. We are all groups of very special individuals, and we don't have to be beholden to traditions that other people started just because that is what everyone else does. On the same token, those who celebrate in a traditional way are just as awesome too! That's the whole point, we should all be free to engage in living in a way that empowers us to celebrate the spirit of gratitude.
As for me, I am going to go gratefully dish up a pile of leftovers, hello yum!
Snickers Caramel Apple Salad
8 ounces thawed Cool Whip
3.4 ounce box of instant vanilla pudding
6 Snickers bars
4 large Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup (or more) chopped peanuts
caramel ice cream toppingPlace Snickers bars in the freezer while you peel, core, and slice the apples.
Put thawed Cool Whip in a mixing bowl and add the entire packet of instant vanilla pudding. DO NOT PREPARE THE PUDDING! Put the powdered pudding mix into the whipped topping and mix it well.
Add chopped apples, take the candy bars out of the fridge and chop them into bite size pieces. Add to the bowl with the apples. Fold the salad together until well combined.
Top salad with chopped peanuts and drizzle caramel sauce on top. Store in the fridge until ready to serve. My crew ate the entire bowl, so be prepared to not have leftovers!
Good luck with your hands, it looks amazing
Lol! Thanks, it was awesome, I’m still recovering :)
I LOVE this tradition. What an excellent way to spent the day. :))
Awe, thanks! It was so awesome this year! The fun filtered into the next day too, lots of board games and leftover noodle slurping occurred, lol, hope you had a glorious Thanksgiving:)
Happy belated Thanksgiving!!! My favourite American holiday although I'm not American. All this time I thought I was following you and here I see I wasn't ..... sorry .... I've really been missing out. Looks like you had a feast. Good thing it felt like a feast. I know the feeling around a time of celebration but the last thing you feel like doing is celebrating because you've been slaving away
Oh! Don't be sorry, sometimes I swear I have followed someone and it shows that I haven't. I think the interface likes to play tricks on us sometimes!
And it was a glorious feast, not at all healthy, but once in a while it's fun to go wild lol
I really like this idea! This year I realized I love every part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal except the turkey. This includes mashed potatoes and gravy, sunshine salad, squash, yams, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. Maybe next year I'll just skip the turkey.
Yams and sausage stuffing are seriously two of my all time favorite dishes. And I am glad you like the idea. I feel like cooking your favorite dish to share with family is the ultimate expression of gratitude!😊
I'm sure the turkey won't mind if you skip it, lol!