When you're in a relationship - it's 2 Thanksgiving dinners!!!!! His family and mine.
In my family, I am the cook. I learned to cook for my brother and sister when my mom worked different shifts (and I'm the youngest - I learned to cook at 9) so I read recipe book after recipe book and now I have made flavor a major issue.
My mom doesn't cook food with flavor and so I am always nominated to cook most everything and bring it to the family dinner (I'm now 41).
I make brown sugar glazed ham, turkey with cornbread, sausage, and mushroom dressing - green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, pumpkin custard pies, and fresh cranberry relish with oranges and cinnamon. I leave the dinner rolls, salads, and yams to everyone else.
I once had a Thanksgiving dinner and as I was setting up the buffet table, I came back to the table with another dish from the kitchen to find all the brown sugar glazed ham on the platter already eaten. I was pi$$ed at first and then was honored that it was worth eating before anything else. That is always a compliment to a cook to have a whole dish eaten because it was the most memorable flavor to many people.
When we finally do sit down to the meal, we all give a prayer of what we are thankful for and then enjoy a meal together as a family again.
After dinner it's the game for the sports fans and traditionally it's the beginning of the Christmas season for everyone else (especially the children) so the tree gets decorated that nite and everyone starts getting into the Christmas spirit for the start of the next holiday.