Thanksgiving Tips..THE RIGHT WAY

So...

I'm on my way to leave my dorm room for Thanksgiving Break! I'm finally escaping the college atmosphere and going back to my house to eat a great Thanksgiving dinner. And I was looking through a bunch of articles online about Thanksgiving, and while I was reading I came upon this article of tips from Reader's Digest:

If you are the host...

-Plan to provide a traditional Thanksgiving feast, then be creative with side dishes.
-Whenever anyone offers to help or bring a dish, say, "Yes, thank you!"
-Use hollowed bread loaves for charming serving containers for cheeses, dips, olives, chips and small sandwiches.
-Once the table settings and centerpiece are in place, sit in each chair to make sure each guest will feel comfortable.
-Include favorite kids' foods, especially those they can eat neatly with their fingers.
-Provide at least one low-calorie dish and a vegetarian option. Then serve a sinful dessert.
-Completely clear the table of all dishes from previous courses before serving dessert.
-Fill the sink with soapy water so cutlery and small dishes can soak clean as the guests are finishing.
-Make it easy for guests who help you clean up to help you recycle. Place bins in the kitchen labeled "glass," "cans" and "trash."
-Keep club soda nearby to clean spots or stains on the tablecloth or clothing.

If you are a guest...
-Arrive no earlier than the time the host has announced and no later than half an hour after the time.
-Plan to stay about an hour after dinner unless travel plans or sleepy children necessitate leaving earlier.
-Bring a gift and write a note of thanks afterward.
-Offer to help set up for dinner and to clean afterward.
-Notify the host of any special dietary needs -- if you are a vegetarian, diabetic or allergic to common foods. You can tell the host how to prepare a dish you can eat, or even better, offer to bring that dish yourself.
-If you're going to a potluck Thanksgiving, bring a serving dish with your contribution. Remember, the best potluck dishes are those that need minimal preparation in the host's kitchen, can be served at room temperature and require only a fork to eat.



Ok, I don't know about you, but I have some tips of my own. And a lot of them counteract the tips given by the great "Reader's Digest".

First of All, the beginning tips as a host are obvious when creating a Thanksgiving dinner, but making a side dinner for children??? The meal is classic...turkey, mashed potatos, corn, cranberry sauce, blah blah blah
...And if your winey kid is complaining about it, the mom yells at him, tells him to be thankful for once in his life, and the kid has to eat it in silence or go to time out. That's how most family's work.

If you're a guest, the tips are COMPLETELY different.

Reader's Digest tells you to plan to stay about an hour after dinner is over. Those of us who have dinner with the family KNOW this is not even close to the amount of time you're going to spend there.

We're talking
clearing the table,
washing dishes,
talking with grandparents,
catching ALL of the football game,
and a lot more.
If you think you're going to scarf down your dinner and book it out of there in an hour...you are highly mistaken.

Now the tip that talks about setting up dinner before hand and cleaning up afterwards, there is not much of a choice in that.

As a college student I'm still considered a child ( Yes we are, to bad fellow students )...and that mean when Grandma tells you to collect the plates and bring them in the kitchen...you collect the plates and bring them in the kitchen.
This is not the PROPER thing to do
........this is what you to avoid getting a slap on the hands later.

And as for bringing your own dish to Thanksgiving dinner....SOMETIMES people do this. But most of the time you just end up coming an hour early and getting forced to stir gravy for 20 minutes while the host finishes cooking up the meal.

So as as human being, you don't really need tips like this from Reader's Digest. You know exactly what your family meals entail and how they are going to set up and clean up for them. So nobody should be reading Thanksgiving Tips online, instead you should just go to your family's house like you always do and enjoy the big eating event that is Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

And Talk to ya Later!