From scratch

On Thanksgiving (and most every other day of the year), my mother makes absolutely everything from scratch, from pie dough to stuffing/dressing. Fresh herbs in the turkey, homemade whipped cream for the half-dozen pies we made. Even the cranberry relish in later years was from scratch (my sister makes a cranberry-orange relish).
For foodies like us, dear readers, this is the norm. It's from scratch because we don't know any other way. We wouldn't dream of buying the pumpkin pie or (gasp!) plopping a tub of Cool Whip on the table. (Read the ingredients on that stuff. Ick!)
This year I'm not going home because I have to work today, the day after Thanksgiving and Saturday. I'll be at a new house where I know things will be different, perhaps some things a little less homemade.
For my mom and me, Thanksgiving is about the cooking. We stay up late the night before finishing pies, then rise early on Turkey Day to start the bird. It's nothing fancy, just good, from-scratch homemade food.
I was riding on the elevator today, and I heard people talking about letting the grocery store make the turkey or the dressing -- even the whole meal! To me, Thanksgiving is just not a day for shortcuts.
What do you think?

(No) Turkey Day

So for about the 10th consecutive year, I'm about to have a turkey-free Thanksgiving. I've made a Tofurkey for the past several years but I'm skipping it this Thanksgiving because no one else in my family will help me eat it, and because I won't be at my parents' house long enough to enjoy the leftovers. I'm basically planning to load up on side dishes, which I tend to do anyway, and I think my mother also may have picked up some vegetarian chicken drumsticks of some sort. Anyway, I'm curious: What are any of you other vegetarians having for your main dish? My co-worker Rachel just alerted me to what seems to be a new place in Madisonville called Five Star Foodies (the Web site's still under construction) that sells vegetarian turkey rolls and gravy, which might be worth checking out at some point. I'd love to hear your ideas (if not for this year, maybe next year...)