Guests should be grateful for one meal

Dear Miss Manners: I have hosted our family’s Thanksgiving dinner for more than 30 years, and when it comes to sharing the leftovers, there is always an abundance of vegetables, breads and desserts, but never enough turkey.

I could never bring myself to say no, so I have come up with a simple solution that leaves everyone happy, including my husband: I cook two turkeys. One to share and one to serve.

The sharing turkey is cooked through the night, then completely carved the next morning. I place it all in a roasting pan with drippings in a warming oven while we eat.

Each person comes with a dish or plastic bag and helps themselves. It works beautifully for us and it might work for others with the same problem.

Gentle Reader: Far be it from Miss Manners to dispute a family arrangement that is, you say, working beautifully. But while she appreciates your desire to be useful beyond your family, she frankly hopes that there is not a wide need for such a solution.

On a day dedicated to feeling gratitude for one’s blessings, has it become customary to squabble over the leftovers? Are people who have the honor and pleasure of attending a ceremonial feast entitled to feel aggrieved if they are not given a take-out meal as well?

If this is what things have come to, we might as well give up the misleading name of Thanksgiving and declare a national Gimme Day.