I was specifically referring to the mashed potato bar but I think I love the idea of pie meal too. How does it work? I've totally done pie for breakfast the day after.
My mom is one of five siblings, and now that my generation has kids there's just too many people to all get together on Thanksgiving Day. Plus with everyone dealing with inlaws and different schedules it gets complicated. So instead of trying to coordinate that rigamarole (which it sounds like you know first hand what kind of nightmare that can turn out to be), we plan to get together on Friday. My aunt and uncle always host, and people come when they can. My cousin usually makes a turkey pot pie out of leftovers, but some years she makes turkey soup instead, it's pretty low key. Then whoever else comes brings pizzas (cuz they're pizza pies, yo) and many different kinds of pie. People come when they can and stay as long as they want. It's especially nice because my grandma's second husband always comes, and we don't get to see him much now that my grandma has passed away and he is remarried.
Every year we are invited to regular Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house and she has enough guest bedrooms that we could stay the weekend, but we like to stay home and keep it low key on Thursday and then go down for Friday Pie Day.
