Mr. Bill wrote:
>
> As I stated earlier.....where I am from, we have two sides to our
> family. Yes, the tree did fork! <vbg>
>
> We have well established traditions that go back to the fifties. One
> side of our family comes for Thanksgiving. Then we share with
> others in the "tree". The other side of the family comes for
> Christmas and we alternate that every year.

Congratulations. You have a system that seems to work. My wife would
have loved to have her family for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it
would be easier to heard cats than to get them all to agree on a date
and time. It was much easier to do it at my parents. For the last 10-15
years my parents were around we usually had them her for Easter and
Thanksgiving. Christmas was almost always at their place. My mother in
law did manage to get her family together for one Christmas. They took
us out to a nice restaurant. The only other time we did it with the
in-laws was the year that my MiL died and the family felt a need to be
together.

Now that my parents are gone it is between my brothers and I. I had one
brother and his family here two years ago. Last year we went to another
brother's house, and this year my other brother brother and his family
are coming here.



> Many feasts and
> dishes have become tradition and they will always be present at our
> home. As many families share Roast Turkey as a Thanksgiving and
> Christmas dish. we do also. All the "side" dishes are demanded and
> expected.

Yep.... turkey with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce
and a carrot Christmas pudding with caramel sauce are expected.


> We always change the wine and many family members>
> suggest their "table wine" favorites with the hints of "Food & Wine".
> They have very good suggestions for all meals.

They suggest the wines that you provide?????/ They don't bring the
wines they like?