Katy, $8 for a restaurant meal at Thanksgiving is a great price! Do you have other unattached friends who might like to join you? I have sometimes had my Thanksgiving dinner at Chinese restaurants, which are also often open on Christmas, too. In fact dining at Chinese restaurants at Christmas was a tradition in my family where the idea was that none of the moms should have to do all that work on Christmas. When an uncle spent three years in a nursing home I had dinner with him there. And some radio stations (usually public or college stations) play Alice's Restaurant during the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Also, high school football games between local rival schools are often played annually on Thanksgiving morning. My son played trombone in the Coventry High School band at their games against West Warwick High School.

This year, like most recent years, I have been invited to dine at the home of my daughter-in-law's mother and stepdad in Newport, RI. Theirs is a large family with their adult children, their spouses, and their children. The first time I went I brought six bottles of wine purchased from a specialty wine store, since I didn't know what foods they would serve and didn't want to duplicate what they already had. However, they are very knowledgeable about wine and I'm not sure if they liked what I brought. I knew they had selected their own wine for that meal and told them to set mine aside for another occasion. They never mentioned anything about having drunk the ones I gave. I was hoping at least to hear something like, "We particularly liked [such-and-such]." Having eaten there that first time, I was able to decide what they didn't serve and I've brought it ever since--shrimp with cocktail sauce and tartar sauce, which I will bring again this year. One year I also brought French-Canadian meat stuffing (which is also used to make pies--my grandmother's recipe), only to discover that both the mother and stepdad had cooked turkeys with different stuffings. Mine never got served, though I think it was forgotten and not deliberate. At that time I hadn't known them for long and didn't know how to bring it up, although at the end of the meal I reminded them it was in the microwave and should be put in the refrigerator. My son and daughter-in-law took some home with them.

One year recently when I realized I was going to be alone (my son and daughter-in-law were going to my ex-husband's in New Hampshire) I went to Latitude 41, the restaurant owned by Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. At that time the seaport opened on Thanksgiving but was minimally staffed on that day. That meant no programs, but people could walk the grounds, which I did. Now the seaport no longer opens on Thanksgiving, although the restaurant still has its holiday buffet.

Lizzie, when I taught elementary school, no matter what the grade, from Columbus Day until Thanksgiving I would put on display all my books on Native Americans. (These books were on the classroom shelves mixed with other books throughout the year for children to read when assigned work was completed.) I would tell my students that many Native Americans did not feel like celebrating these holidays and i would explain why. Also, I often respond to pleas at this time of the year from Native American relief organizations to donate the amount of money required to serve a turkey dinner to a certain number of people.