Autism Moms Thursday Thanksgiving

Welcome to another Autism Moms Thursday. To show the differences and similarities of what our Thanksgivings are like compared to families that do not have an autistic child, I am opening today's meme to all Moms. The topic is simple: Thanksgiving. It can be anything related to Thanksgiving. You favorite memory, the food you serve, how you spend Thanksgiving day, anything you want. If you wish to participate, just copy the image above and link it to this post. Come back here and enter your link in Mr McKlinky.

I am going to talk about Thanksgiving Dinner. My daughter will usually eat just about anything, but when we are having a big family Thanksgiving Dinner, it is hard to get her to sit still long enough to eat. When it is just the four of us, I have no problem. She will help me in the kitchen and will sit and eat happily because she "helped" prepare it.

My son is a different story. He won't eat stuffing. He won't eat turkey. He will eat will eat plain green beans, but not the casserole that everyone loves to make at Thanksgiving. He will eat ham and bread. Everyone in the family knows what a picky eater he is, but no one bothers to ask if there is something that they can make that he will eat. He loves macaroni and cheese (from the box, not home made). How difficult would it be to make that as a side?

There have been plenty of times that I have had to make him dinner when we got home, because he just didn't get enough to eat. Luckily, when we went down to Florida one year to spend Thanksgiving at my sister's house, she asked me what she could make just for my son. She wanted to make sure that he did have something to eat. Now, my sister and I have had our issues when it comes to my son, but I can always count on her to make sure he eats when visiting her.

At home, when I cook Thanksgiving Dinner, I can make the foods that I love to serve (potatoes and gravy, turkey, corn, biscuits, and stuffing). I know that three out of the four of us will eat these. For my son, I can easily add in rice, pasta and ham. We end up with a lot of left overs. I don't mind. That just means that I won't have to cook for a while. Dessert is easy. Chocolate Pie and Pumpkin Pie, with cool whip. When we have dinner at my mother-in-law's, one of my sister-in-law's usually brings a Chocolate Pie. She didn't one year, and felt so bad because it was my son's favorite. She now makes a point of bringing one and making sure he gets the first piece.

When my son was younger, we had to deal with him getting too much sensory input whenever we went to a big family get together. My husband and I would spend the night trying to calm him down, because he would be crying so hard and nothing would console him. It's a lot better now. He loves getting together with family, but seems to always insist on leaving right after we eat. This year we are planning a small Thanksgiving Dinner at my Grandma's house. Just us and her. It should be really nice.