The whole purpose of the holiday is to get together with the family and spend quality time together and have some good home cooked food. As much as I love eating at restaurants, and I do, the holidays mean eating at home, or at a family members home.
In 1981, on the first Thanksgiving following my father's death, we were all a little out of sorts, and we all (my mother, brother, sister, wife) decided that we would just go to a nice restaurant, have dinner and not worry about the clean up.It was probably the saddest holiday meal I have ever eaten. I'm not refering to the fact that my father wasn't there, which of course was looming over us, it was not being involved in the cooking process, not being at home, we were eating with strangers, there no were leftovers, it was very sterile. It was a top of the line restaurant, but it didn't matter. We should have stayed home, cooked and given thanks to the good Lord for the time we had with dad, we should have stayed home and celebrated his life. We never made that mistake again. The holidays (with the exception of Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's Day) are for home.
