I’m Missing Out on My Family’s Thanksgiving Eve Tradition

Many years ago, my sister's all started getting together on the night before Thanksgiving to do some precooking for the Thanksgiving Day meal. After they did it for a couple of years my wife Chris started going down to Carbondale to partake in the festivities.

Every year they cook at least one turkey ahead of time so they are be able to pack the meat up so everybody that was at our house on Thanksgiving has some turkey to take home for turkey sandwiches. They would peel the potatoes for the mash potatoes and they start getting some of the desserts ready. But I think the real reason they all get together is just to drink and it have fun.

After two or three years of Chris going down Thanksgiving Eve without me, I decided I would start going with her. If I didn't have to work Thanksgiving morning on air, we would go down the night before and get a hotel room in Carbondale. We would head to my sister's house shortly after we checked in. I would hang out and drink with my brother-in-law while all my sisters and Chris were in the kitchen getting stuff ready.

Sometimes after they were done with the prep work, we would play board games and share stories that would have our sides hurting from laughing so hard. With the restrictions in Pennsylvania this year due to Covid-19, none of us will be going to my sister's for Thanksgiving Eve or Thanksgiving Day.