Thanksgiving in your RV? Yep, RV Nana has done this and have to admit that it was so much fun. First thing you have to do is forget the prim and proper vision of Thanksgiving and families that you see on all the home magazines. Thanksgiving in an RV is really what it’s all about. Forget the fancy clothes, Forget the fancy place setting and bringing out the good china. Thanksgiving on the road is like a Friendsgiving with family, friends and making new RVing traditions.
Many of the RV parks have pot luck meals where the park will provide the turkey and all the guests bring sides. These are fun and it’s a great opportunity to meet new friends, but I was determined to bring some of our family traditional meals to the RV kitchen and it worked. I got lucky because my son in law fried a turkey, but the dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, fruit salad and my dirty rice dressing was all done in the RV. The key to making this so easy is to plan ahead. I baked a small chicken the week before we left so I could use the boned chicken and the drippings in my cornbread dressing. I also cooked my Mother in Laws dirty rice dressing mix early and froze it so all I had to do was defrost it, cook some instant rice and mix it all together. It all went so smoothly and cooking at the park made it tase so much better.
The kids always got involved in the table setting. We would pull two picnic tables together, cover with brown craft paper and then let the kids make handprint turkeys to decorate the tablecloth. I always have some paints in the craft box for times just like this. I have the kids a small wicker basket and asked them to go on a hike and find leaves and sticks to make a centerpiece and they did. It was awesome. We all payed games, sat around the fire after our big meal and then , in our family tradition, asked each person to name something they were thankful for. Of course, after that meal, we were all pretty thankful for elastic waste pants.
Have fun, think outside the box and make memories.