As we in the USA countdown to Thanksgiving, I wondered what some of your traditions are and how you plan to change them now that you are eating low carb and have lost (or will have lost) weight?

My 4 sisters, their families, my mother, my daughter and myself typically get together on Thanksgiving day at one of our homes. Not everyone in the family goes, but a fair enough percentage to call it a family gathering. Usually the person who is hosting cooks the turkey and everyone else brings a dish or 2... with my mother being the one who brings 5 or 6 dishes, lol! Having raised 5 children, she still tends to cook a lot of food!

We don't usually dress up - jeans and sweaters are common if it's cold out. Occassionally someone will dress up and get compliments... "Oh don't you look nice today...."

Now that my nephews and nieces are having families, we finally have some little children around again. You can imagine the chaos with this many people and now the little ones cropping up. But, after all is said and done, when it is time to eat, we say a prayer of thanksgiving for all of our blessings and chow down.

After dinner, we sit around and visit, talking about how we ate too much and how our bellys are full. The TV is usually on with a football game going. When my daughter was little she used to always complain afterwards that they wouldn't let her watch a movie; that it always had to be football, lol. And there seem to always be that one person who drifts off to sleep sitting in the lazy boy...

Well, to the subject at hand. How do I want to change our traditions? First of all, I'd like to see us reduce the carb laden food. All of my sisters and my mother struggle with weight issues and all of them are trying to reduce their carbs. However some of the nephews and nieces inherited genes from their other side of the family and are skinny as rails. So we can have some foods with carbs for them.

My goal over the next few weeks is to learn to make some yummy lc foods so that I can take it to the get together. I haven't yet decided what to take, but am thinking about the lc cheesecake for dessert, and maybe a really good veggie side dish. My dream would be to learn to make a really low carb dinner roll.

I was also thinking that it might be fun to dress up for the holiday. Maybe buy a new outfit, hopefully in a lower size or 2. Wear some make up, which I rarely do. Get my nails done, etc. While I know I won't be down enough weight to make a huge difference, I'd really like to look good this year. I'm hoping by then that my family will really notice the weight loss and I want to be a good example to them about how this WOE can make a difference in their lives.

So how do you celebrate and what will you be changing this year?

Diemde,

You've lost 50 pounds; I'll just bet that your new "dressier dress" will be at least one size smaller! Go for it!

Our Thanksgiving tradition is smaller; we're not close enough to the rest of the family to be able to get there easily for the long weekend, so it's just the immediate family (since DD lives on the other coast, it's 3 of us unless she flies out) and a small group of friends (the number varies--the smallest group total recently has been 5, the largest, 12). I do the cooking, except for the turkey, which gets done on the Weber barbecue by DH. And it is a feast, which I'm already thinking about lo-carbing. Traditionally, I stuff the turkey using Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing mix and carrots, celery, onion, mushroom, green pepper, water chestnuts, and wine; make brussel sprouts with hollandaise sauce (that's legal) (yes--brussel sprouts; people complained the one year I didn't make them ); have both sweet and white potatoes, baked, with butter and sour cream; make a huge salad (that's legal, too!); both cranberry sauce and cranberry/orange relish; rolls; and, of course, pumpkin pie for dessert. This is one meal that is neither low carb nor low fat!

But I'm thinking of ways to increase the low carb foods, even if I don't get to decrease the hi carb ones. (Long story.) We always have too much food, anyway--so this year we'll have way to much food!

Jude

Hi Diemde. Were you spying on our last Thanksgiving with our family? The first four paragraphs you wrote are nearly exactly how we celebrate our holidays. Usually I'm asked to bring the baked beans. Everyone likes my bbq beans cooked overnight in a crock pot. On the other hand, being on this WOE makes it harder to put effort into preparing food I will not eat.

I still go along with family tradition because the decision to follow this WOL is mine so I don't broadcast it anywhere outside of close friends, immediate family and this forum. I prefer to let time and my weight loss results speak for themselves in the long run.

i have only got two living relatives (my mother and father) i spend the holidays with my mom cause i can't take vacation around the holidays. she normally fixed a turkey and dressing and deviled eggs, fruit salad, potato salad ..ect enough to feed us for days lol... we might watch a movie and that would pretty much be the whole of it... when my parents we still together we had a huge dinner, I would get out the china and silver set the table. and we would invite everyone we knew to come by .. when my friends came by i'd end up in the barnyard somewhere with them while everyone else watched football ... I remember my mom cooking for days for thanksgiving
now adays i just volenteer every holiday so the people with familes can have them off

Crysania

Are you in my family???

That was out celebrations EXACTLY until recently..lol

Now we almost dont even have a tradition becuase my MIL died in January and everything has changed and my grandpa died 3 years ago which ended my family get toethers on my side... perhaps we should work on new traditions.

I Tried that Cauliflower puree last night for a replacement of Mashed Potatoes. I think this Tanksgiving I will make some more because they were good, They disapeared so the family liked them too!

Wow, the description sounded familar of my family growing up. . Except for the football.
My maternal side of the family would get together except that it is very female dominated with most of my aunts divorced. So NO football. Instead everyone would play cribbage or rumey (?) for hours after dinner.
Dinner would be made at grandma's with all the females helping to cook in the kitchrn. The few males were responsible for the clean up after dinner. We'd have, turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, vegetables, perogies, cabbage rolls, and of course gravy and cranberry sauce. Our family doesn't really get together anymore we're too far sprawled over the country. I generally offer to work holidays. Or just cook something nice up for my husband. This year he's getting turkey, with low carb stuffing, gravy, cauliflower, green beans and low carb pumpkin pie with a pecan crust. He'll like it, he likes everything I cook. We'll probably start some new traditions when we have kids.