Thanksgiving was a big holiday in my family, so when we went on the road it was important to me that we at least tried to do something special on the day.  The first year we were lucky enough to spend the holidays with my sister, but since then we have always been working and have been away from family.  Over the years we have had a steak dinner in the middle of the redwoods, ate with Cori’s family, and ate out at a restaurant with fellow employees at Amazon.  This year we are having what I consider our first Friendsgiving.

I first heard the term several years ago when my youngest daughter, who is in the Air Force, banded together with some friends and cooked a meal.  I thought it was really cool that people far from family still honored the tradition and since everyone cooked their family favorites the food was always good.  This year there were only five of us together, but we still decided to do the big meal with all the trimmings.  Bill and Greg smoked a turkey that was brined in Cajun spices (really delicious) and we all chipped in our favorite sides.  Ultimately it was a ton of food, but also generated lots of leftovers, which was just fine with all of us!

 

 

While Cori and Greg were at brunch with her family, Bill and Lee worked on rig stuff outside and I cooked up a storm.  I miss the big family meals on the road, and ended up making two deserts, broccoli cheese casserole, stuffing, the eggs, and Lee made gravy, which admittedly was a ridiculous amount of food, but still fun.

 

 

 

 

It wasn’t all cooking, because I was able to get a strong NBC signal and watched the Macy’s Day parade and then my absolute favorite, the Dog Show!  It was Jack’s first experience with seeing dogs on TV, but apart from the occasional growl (he didn’t like the German Shepherd) or intent interest (he thought the Shih Tzu was really cute) he mostly just chilled. He and Hobie were in and out of the rig all day and were playing a game of sorts with a piece of rawhide.  Jack would take it and not let Hobie near it, and as soon as Jack lost interest Hobie would grab it and take off with it.  It was pretty fun to watch and that piece of rawhide was back and forth between our rigs throughout the day until finally it got chewed up! There was also lots of play time and a surprisingly good Cowboys/Redskins football game.

 

 

 

 

It was a very nice day and so glad we all got to spend it together.  We all missed Kelly who was home with her kids, but she is coming back on Friday, and Cori and I are going to the airport to pick her up.  Friendsgivings are very special and as much as I miss my family at the holidays, are a nice way to celebrate.

---

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.