What to do for Thanksgiving?

Do you do what your grandmother did? and then what your mother did?  What was it?  Do you have traditions passed down through generations?  And then you got married and did you incorporate your mother-in-law's traditions?  What makes Thanksgiving really special to you?  The cooking? the get-togethers? the sheer joy of eating good food?

We'll be spending this Thanksgiving in Sarasota, Florida, with family members and after a couple of years of just the two of us, we're really looking forward to it!  While down there last week, my cousins and I sort of planned the mean and divided some chores and I think it will be great!!

Besides the golden brown, crispy-breasted turkey in the 15-18 pound range, we have stuffing that is from my family from 1964 out of TV Guide no less!  Let me tell you this stuffing is so good you'll be spooning it into your mouth faster than you get it into the turkey!!  Here's the first recipe:

Turkey Stuffing that Might Not Make it Into the Bird ... this recipe is over 40 years old and for each of its 40 years since we have had it, it has been awesome!  So I wish you well if you try it :)  They call it an Apple Sausage Stuffing, Pennsylvania Dutch Style and here we go ...
1 pound sausage
1 cup diced bacon
1 large onion chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 pound mushrooms sliced
2 apples cored and diced
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon each sage and thyme (I usually up the sage as I love it(
1 pound loaf firm white bread cubes
2 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage and bacon togeher, mushing sausage as it cooks.  When both are brown, add veggies (onions, celery, mushcooms, and apples) along with herbs (parsley, sage and thyme).  Cook for about 5 minutes until vegetables begin to wilt.  Season with salt and pepper and add bread cubes and chicken broth to moisten all.  Don't make it mushy, but don't make it too dry either!  Pour into a bowl to let cool before stuffing the bird.

This will fill about  a 10-12 bird, but we're going for a 15-18 lb bird so I might add some more stuff to his .... yummmmmmm.
Onward and upward ... let' s see what else we traditionally had at our Thanksgiving table -- mashed potatoes (like duh!!!), squash -- yummmm! In my adult years I have migrated toward a mixture of Butternut and Hubbard squashes, boiled and mashed.  Now, I admit that Butternut isn't that forbidding to deal with -- cute little gourd-like squash -- not to difficult to chop in slices and peal and get in the pot to boil.  But then we have the Hubbard squash -- wow! is that a challenge!  First time I faced that was up in Vermont and I was totally intimidated by this veggie!
... and rightfully so!  It really needs a "manly" hand and an axe to cut through the touch hide, but then it's all yours!  I generally leave the tough skin on and roast it in a pan with a lot of water until I can peel the flesh away easily.  Then it goes into the mixer with the butternut squash, a bit of butter, a bit of brown sugar, and a good couple of shakes of salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Ta Da ... ready for the table!