Thanksgiving To Go

We had "Thanksgiving to go" this year. My sister always has the whole extended family to her house for a big, traditional dinner. She had planned to put two turkey breasts in to roast in the morning, and to have family members bring side dishes. Well, it didn't happen that way.

Our mom had a transient ischemic attack ("mini stroke") on Tuesday, and was admitted to the hospital. She had to stay there over Thanksgiving. She lives 90 minutes away and the hospital is about two hours away. My sister wanted to take Thanksgiving dinner to our mom in the hospital, but her turkey wasn't cooked. I had roasted a turkey breast on Wednesday and we decided to take that. My stepfather couldn't drive to the hospital to see Mom because he is almost blind from macular degeneration. So, his daughter-in-law drove him to the hospital.

In the meantime, my sister's in-laws in Kentucky decided they weren't going to come to the big Thanksgiving dinner because her kids had colds and they didn't want to be exposed. Also, the weather was bad and getting worse. We called our grown niece, her husband and three small children, and told them not to make the 90-minute drive to Kentucky. Instead, we stopped on our way home and had dessert with them (they had already had dinner for his family).

So, we saw everyone (except my sister's in-laws) by driving around in the pouring rain. We took food with us to Mom, had dessert at a niece's, and finished the day by eating turkey at my sister's house after she finally had a chance to roast it and her husband was home from the hospital (he was on call that day). It was a kind of "hodge podge" Thanksgiving, with no big sit-down dinner. But it worked... it kind of reminded me of a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!

p.s. Mom is home now, and says she feels fine.