Thanksgiving potluck - aka "why go it alone?"

Since we've moved to a new town and none of our family live close by, we're going to start our own tradition for Thanksgiving this year. We considered returning "home" to be with family, but the cost of airfare (or gas) is prohibitive and traveling with kids across country is not much fun, particularly at this time of the year when the roads are prone to ice storms.

So we've decided to do our own thing, perhaps celebrating with friends. Another idea would be to go to the local food bank and serve dinner of the homeless. Thanksgiving is overrated anyways, and it has become yet another holiday to use as an excuse to gorge yourself and eat way too much fattening food. My wife and I also get tired of spending all day in the kitchen for a single meal, eve if we are serving loved ones. Last year, e picked up a smoked turkey from the local grocery store, which was awesome. All we had to do was heat it up for a couple of hours - no rep work involved.

This yea, we were thinking of getting together with friends and perhaps having a potluck. That way, no single family is strapped with the burden of preparing dinner for everyone. It's not only more cost effective, but it makes for easier cleanup and much less preparation.