Weddingbee Blog

This is my first holiday season as a vegetarian–eep! My plan at the moment is to bring one or two of the dishes featured in November’s Vegetarian Times as general food contributions. No one turns down more food, after all, and this will guarantee that there are at least two things that I can eat :).

We try to see both sides of the family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But we alternate which family we see on the actual holiday since our families live over 3 hours apart from each other. This year, we are spending Thanksgiving Day with my family and the weekend after with my FI’s family. Then we are spending Christmas Day with my FI’s family and seeing my family sometime the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Next year, we will probably switch the order.

I agree with Jen’s post, you can just bring a dish or 2 that are veg-friendly. It’s probably polite to bring something anyways.

We’re alternating Thanksgivings, last year we went to his family’s–who has a big, friendly family who aren’t very good cooks. This year we’re going to my parents’. Our family get togethers are small, but I think my ma’s awesome cooking makes up for it

We haven’t made the step to missing Christmas with our families. I go to mine, he goes to his. That’s probably going to change when we get married next year, but we haven’t figured it out yet.

I agree with Jen as well. I’d avoid making a fuss about your vegetarianism/dislike of onions/ dislike of waterchestnuts.
Bring a couple of dishes! Go with the flow. Find things you DO like to eat, already in the roster. Last thing you want to do make the new family change their traditions just for you.
There are several vegetarians in my newly extended family, even kosher/vegans. So family gatherings can be difficult. Especially when it comes to food. What makes it all fine is that everyone takes care of themselves, and no one person is expected to cater to everyone. The kosher/vegans bring the tofurkey! The meat eaters bring the sausage and chesnut stuffing. The vegetarians bring the OLIVES.

we’re pretty lucky I guess, because his family is entirely in our town and my family is only 70 miles away. We’ll get up early and drive to spend the morning/early afternoon with my family, which is always very casual. Our tradition is that we just stay in our PJs and eat all day! Then we drive back and spend the late afternoon/evening with his family. We usually make it by dessert, and while they’re not formal either they’re at least dressed for the day.

While it’s nice to be able to see everybody (his family is much larger than mine!) we’re usually exhausted by the end of the day. And it’s hard to say goodbye and leave my family so early in the day, especially with DH bouncing around because he’s so eager to get back and see his. We repeat this process on Christmas, too.

I have the same problem…vegetarianism, that is. Last year at Thanksgiving I simply didn’t take anything that was prepared with meat or broth…meaning my dinner was rolls, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes. This year, Mr. Blueberry’s mom is going to make some dishes with cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken, so I can eat more But I still don’t feel right requesting anything special, and will prob. just end up eating something else after the dinner.

At my parents’ house, my dad fixes cold shrimp for me (I’ll eat fish occasionally so I’m not really a *full* vegetarian) as my “entree” and they make almost everything else vegetarian friendly–even if they complain about it :-P.

For holidays in general, we alternate holidays…this year Thanksgiving is at Mr. Blueberry’s parents’ house, so Christmas will be at my parents’ house. But next year we’ll switch, and every year that we don’t celebrate the actual holiday at someone’s house, we always make sure to visit the other side the next day.

Wow. So many vegetarians? Jen had a great suggestion, which is what my parents always did when we went to Grandma’s. When we moved 500 miles away when I was in high school, we started a new tradition where we’d pick a region (Greece, India, etc) and plan our menu around that. We’d also invite the neighbors and any “orphans” we knew. It was really fun to create this slightly crazy, veggie friendly holiday. I had no idea how homesick my fiance was the first Thanksgiving (Japanese that time) with us until the next Thanksgiving that we spent with his family- my first holiday ever away from home. I was 26 and cried that night in the bathroom (so no one could hear) because when I saw the turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc I realized how much my family’s celebration meant to me. We’re going down for this Thanksgiving again, but I’m hoping that this time it’ll feel more normal. His family’s always been very accomodating to my diet, though, which helps a lot.

I go to college out of state.. so it isn’t worth it to take the plane home when I only get two days off. Naturally, I am invited to the bf’s family for thanksgiving. I miss my family thanksgivings, too. The most I miss is Chinese New Year, because my family goes all out during that time of the year….

Seriously Miss Kiwi……..you ALWAYS beat me to the punch about things I want to post about!!!!! UGH! I’m not really upset. Great minds think alike. So to answer YOUR post we up at his family’s place for Thanksgiving but we’re spending Christmas with my family. That’s just what we decided on until we get married…then we’re spending the holidays with my family because I’m moving up to Northern Cali where his family is from.