Thanksgiving-2007.com - Thanksgiving guest brings own Tupperware and take leftovers BEFORE dinner is served. What should I have done?

Thanksgiving guest brings own Tupperware and take leftovers BEFORE dinner is served. What should I have done?

My cousin Gus joined us for Thanksgiving dinner after several years of going to upscale restaurants for Thanksgiving. It was nice to see this fellow again but right before dinner the strangest thing happened. It was announced dinner would be ready in 5 minutes & Gus went to his car and brought in 3 large Tupperware containers. I though nothing of this until he actually starting filling them BEFORE dinner was served. The biggest container was filled with 3/4 of the stuffing that was prepared. He also did not hold back on filling the containers with slices of turkey. Other family members had to go without stuffing because of this. The whole family was flabbergasted & did not say anything. I can assume they were in complete shock. Gus is well off & certainly does not need all this food. Has this ever happened to anyone before? What would you have done in this situation? He said he'd be back for Christmas dinner, what should I do if he tries to take all the ham?

Public Comments

That is absolutely atrocious! You should have spoken up. Don't let him steal your ham at Christmas! You have to be blunt about it b/c this guy obviously has no clue.
Don't invite him to Christmas dinner. If you do, make sure you talk to him about that..it was totally wrong!
Please tell me your pulling or legs!
kindly let them know that is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated if it happens again, and that should have waiting until everyone has eating cuz thats rude
Tell him it'll be $150. ahha JK. You need to speak up since you're the host. Say you don't mind if he took some to go but after dinner has been served and everyone has had their share.
Don't Invite Bubba Gus again............................. Period.
Stop him and tell him he can have some if theres any left.
What a loser. never invited them over for dinner again!! err. >:[
I would have been shocked too! That in INCREDIBLY rude. I personally would have gone into his tupperware and doled out some stuffing to my plate, then passed the container around the table for anyone else who wanted some. For Christmas, tell Gus that nobody is allowed to take leftovers home. Period.
Do not invite him back, and explicitly tell him why he is not welcome. If it had been my house he would have been disowned and kicked out. Selfish bastard.
O_o ... I know what i'd do with a guy like this. Deny him access to any and all family dinners until he learns that family dinners are about sharing and not about stuffing his face.
i would have stopped him and said nowe dont take leftovers until they ar actually leftovrs.
I would have just said, "Hey, Gus, maybe you could wait until everyone has eaten?" or if I'd noticed that something was running low, I'd have just gone and gotten his container. How RUDE! If he tries it again at Christmas, say something - try to be polite, and point out to him that you made all this food for EVERYONE and that you would be happy to share if there are leftovers.
Tell him he rudely left people without food before eating so he could have it later, tell him to bring better matters or don't come at all, tell him he should cook the meal this time or least pay for it if he wants to take leftovers,or since he's so well off hire a cook to cook him a meal instead of trampling over your hospitality
tell him that its not a restaurant and that you'd appreciate it if he took LEFTOVERS not starters. that's disgusting and i cant believe he did that. perhaps you should call him and let him know that he is more than welcome to Christmas dinner but that type of behavior is unacceptable. sorry about that!! p.s find out if the food went to a shelter for homeless people or something. i HOPE that it's redeeming like that but i doubt it =/
Its hard to believe someone actually did this, but in the event it happened I would tell them "leftovers are called leftovers because they are LEFT OVER from the meal for everyone, they aren't 'gus-overs'" If he still insisted on doing this, I would just ask him to leave. Plain and simple. This is rude, irresponsible, selfish and very disrespectful to everyone. Go do that at your house.
I would have absolutely said, "You can't have that now; I won't have enough for my guests." I've never heard of such unbelievable rudeness, especially from someone well-off.
yes it happen to me before & i took all Tupperware containers put them in the trash and kick them out of my house & said dont u every come back again
tell him to have some dignity for himself and respect for everyone else, especially since he didnt pitch in with the food.. he aint the only one gotta eat! that is just selfish, and then some of the rest of your family didnt even get any, that's just messed up. i'm sorry, he better be glad i wasnt in your family cuz i woulda told him off right then and there
That was very rude of your cousin. I have never heard of this happening to anyone before. Stop him at Christmas and tell him no, wait for everone else to eat please and then you may take some leftovers.
Gus sounds like an absolute swine. I strongly recommend that you lace the ham with a combination of industrial grade laxative and marinate it in horse urine. Sit back and wait for the glutton to dive in and help himself. This is what a family Christmas is all about
I would call him and tell him it was very inappropriate for him to take food before anyone had a chance to eat and if he plans on doing that at Christmas then he is not invited. I would not hold a grudge against him and make him feel welcomed at Christmas, but let him know ahead of time that what he did was greedy and inconsiderate. This type of behavior should not go unrecognized. That is a shame! We do have very large family gatherings where some families take a to-go home to a family member that is elderly or ill, but it is after everyone has eaten. After everyone has eaten we push the leftovers off on everyone!
Oh My Goodness, I have heard lots of stories about such things, but this one takes the prize! If he has the guts to try that again, you will need the guts to tell him, hey, nothing off the table until everyone has eaten. Then tell him, leftovers are for the family the next day. Did he bring anything, bet he didn't. Keep the fly swatter handy, if he tries, just swat him a good one.
at the next family event when inviting folks over, let it be known that as much they appreciate your cooking, you have to eat the next as well so there will be NO taking leftovers or bagging food before the meal is even served!!!! it's selfish and also inappropiate....when you come to someones home for dinner, you not supposed to take something,your supposed to bring the hostess a gift
You should have scolded him like a bad dog and said, "No! Put that back! What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Seriously, you let him get away with it once, what's to stop him from doing it again at Christmas? You need to stand up for yourself and the rest of your hungry family. Post a sign on the door: No Tupperware Allowed. Don't let this cheap graceless boob walk all over you.
I had a single, gay friend, whom started inviting herself to my home for dinners after she found out what time dinner was served. I put up with it for a bit, but got sick of it. She made good money, and hated to cook. I was single, on disability and raiseing 4 kids alone!! Anyhow, she invitied herself to one of my family Thanksgivings. She brought over a head of cauliflower. Any how, she waited tell after dinner, but began to fill 4 different containers of food to take home with her. I was very put back, first because she invitied herself, then because she being a single person, had money, felt she was intitled to so much food. I had kids to feed!! I was rude, but I had to remind her of the mouths I had to feed, and she was kind enough to only fill 2 containers instead of 4! ( how nice). I also felt it was her fault I had to be the one to turn RUDE, because I even had to tell her one night when she showed up at the dinner hour as usual, and I had to tell her there wasn't enough food for my kids let alone her. She took it in good stride and said, ok, I'll go out and have a steak dinner then! How nice! She could of brought steak to the house!!
Personally I would have smacked his hands with a wooden spoon and called him on the carpet about this. It would be one think for him to ask if he could have leftovers but, if you take before dinner then it is not a leftover. Then I would have made him return the stuffing telling him that if any was left over THEN he could have it. He is your cousin, not a friend who might be more dicey to deal with...you should be able to talk to him and let him know that his behavior was not appreciated and was wrong. I certainly would tell him that because of his behavior at Thanksgiving he is not invited to Christmas Dinner. But, that is just me.
Wow, that really took nerve on his part. I'm surprised this guy is allowed to venture out in public. I can understand why everyone was dumbstruck by his terribly rude behavior. But now that you know what to expect from Gus at Christmas, when you see Gus heading toward the table with his Tupperware in hand, just head him off at the pass and gently explain to him that you'll be happy to share any leftovers AFTER everyone has had their fill. Then remove the Tupperware from his greedy paws and put it out of sight in your kitchen. If you'd like to keep some leftovers for yourself, put the food away before you return the Tupperware to Greedy Gus. If he doesn't like it, well that's just too bad, isn't it! You're under no obligation to cave in to his selfishness.
If he tries to do this at Christmas let him know that you would be happy to let him have some leftovers after dinner when you divide them up for the rest of the family so it is fair. Do your best to keep him out of the kitchen. The only time someone in my family packs ahead of time is if someone is ill and cannot make it. We make a little to go package to be brought over to them. We treat it like their own serving though. This year I brought my own container because I didn't want my Grandma to be out of containers or ziplock bags. I knew ahead of time that it was okay to take stuff home since she cannot keep it all for herself.
That couldn't have possibly been my family because for starters no one touches anything before we give thanks. Second the children are fed first meaning the older children make sure the smaller ones are fed and then they themselves are fed. If somewhere in this part of serving someone (who has been with us for a while) takes too large a portion they are reminded politely that others haven't eaten yet. Then the adults get to eat... I know for certain someone would have spoken up and been very vocal about what do you think you are doing? And if that didn't work we'd start serving ourselves from the tupperware containers first...gotta love my smart-alecky family! Before Xmas you should call this guy and let him know that his actions at T-giving dinner were inappropriate and will not be tolerated..if he gets offended well he has time to find somewhere else to eat.
I really wanted to give you some advise, but Im in too much shock that someone would do this. All I can say is im so sorry he did that to your Thanksgiving. Maybe at Christmas you could tell everyone they are not allowed in the kitchen? You think he would take it off the table in front of everyone?
Just remind Gus that take outs are from restaurants only... and your home is not a restaurant. Really, though, I don't know why you allowed him to do this , knowing you had other guests there as well.