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Every one of the over 55 retirement communities that I'm aware of do have some sort of community Thanksgiving celebration. It might be a couple of days before Thanksgiving or it might be on Thanksgiving. For specifics, you would really need to check into the communities that you are looking at.
The community we lived in had a catered thanksgiving dinner for a couple of years and then switched to a safari supper format (diners go from house to house). This was great for residents who live alone or didn’t want to cook.
Spouse and I will celebrate alone..just the two of us.
I always went all out for TG: Turkey, giblet stuffing and gravy, homemade cran-orange sauce, butternut squash (with butter and brown sugar {I'm diabetic so minimal sugar) and white sugar); green bean Casserole, smashed potatoes (we like to know there's potatoes in there..not the runny "smooth" crap, so I smash them with a masher, butter, sour cream, chives..tastes like a baked potato!), pumpkin pie and a berry pie, hand whipped cream.
I just had major back surgery in Aug, so yeah, I'm not doing all that.
Last year, to avoid bending over and lifting turkey up out of oven, I had picked up a frozen duck at Aldi for $14, so...we had duck instead! And I only made my homemade cran-orange sauce and butternut squash, and some veggies.
Last year I cooked turkey thighs and legs (spouse really only likes the dark meat, I can eat both, UNLESS the breast is dry. And the packaged thighs are HUGE, and spouse likes the legs, which I love the meat off, but all the ligaments, the smaller bones and the...can't think of the name now, so unless I'm deboning it, I prefer the thighs. And those are really huge enough that one thigh will feed two people well.
So we stocked up on duck ag Aldi (3 of them! About $20 each... another local grocery store was charging $29 for one, and they had been there awhile back then.. probably $30-35 now) and to a local chain for 2 pkgs thighs and legs.
I have been double or triple cooking these days, not really to save energy (though nice and environmentally aware), but more because I just can't cook every day anymore both before back surgery and after.
Having spent 9 years cooking in 4 star restaurants as well as I've been cooking since age 9 (60 now), I cook ALL my meats lower temp, slower time (can be all day) so any meat just falls off the bone.
And all "discards" like any bones, or veggie "waste" I put in sauce pan low simmer for 45mins-1hr, and create my own broth (after straining out)
For about 10 years we went to friends house for maintenance meal, but I like turkey leftovers, so I also cook at home. We've moved away, so back to Cooking.
We are getting together with friends who live with us in our 55+ community. However our restaurant is also having a buffet ($45/pp) with 2 different dining seatings, so there will be that offering, too.
There has never been a Thanksgiving or a Christmas where we have not received 4-5 invites. And when we have cooked, we have always cooked for 8-10 people among our acquaintances. Community wide, there are two or three holiday meals available to anyone who needs one. The local food banks have handed out hundreds of turkeys and side dishes.
We're not an official 55+, but it's mostly (about 80%) a retired community here of about 6,000 people. There's not one official dinner, but the Yacht Club serves Thanksgiving dinner, and some of the churches have things. We are having over another couple who live here and are sharing the preparation between us. We've done similar for the 10 years we've been here. Until about 2 years ago we went to a different couple's house with 1 or 2 other couples, so it would be the 6 or 8 of us, but people moving and dying broke that up.
I usually see my out of state family once a year when I travel to the west coast, definitely NOT on the holidays. LOL. You wouldn't catch me out in that mess today for anything.
At my mom's place, everyone is "celebrating Thanksgiving with others" as you ask in your title.
Either within the community, or outside the community, with family or friends.
I'm 62. Several relationships that never panned out. Never married, no children. My holidays have in the past been with my parents and siblings. In the present the holidays have been with my siblings and their children.
But things are changing. A sister, due to a falling out over an inheritance that didn't go her way, has chosen to have as little to do with the rest of us as is possible. My brother, married, divorced, and with now grown children, has entered a relationship with a woman of similar age who has several adult children and a rather large extended family of her own; occasionally he spends a holiday with them. My other sister, married and divorced twice, with no children, has an extended friends group that she can rely upon as a surrogate family. The niece and nephew, they each sometimes spend holidays with the families of their significant others.
There have been some holidays where everyone else goes their different ways, to in-laws or outside groups. I spend said holiday alone. It's happened a few times so far in the past three years. I expect my being alone on a holiday to become more frequent as time goes by. But then I have always had a mostly solitary life. I'm OK with that. And my dogs keep me company.
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