“If any of our children's roommates or boyfriends are at loose ends, they'd be welcome as well.”
My most memorable Thanksgivings were as a college student and being taken in by a family of a friend.
The most memorable was showing up at a Colorado ranch house, the family of a girl that I was friends with. She wasn't going to make it, but she said that I was welcome to join her family and then go pheasant hunting on their farm and neighbor's farms.
I showed up and knocked on the door and said “Thank you so much for allowing me to join you for the weekend.”
Their daughter (my friend) had never called them about me visiting! (IIRC it was a radio-phone or something that didn't always work.) But there I am - standing in their door! I apologized, and asked if it would be okay to just sleep in my truck (with a small camper shell and bed in the back) in their yard.
“Oh - for heavens sake! Of course not. We just got done eating but there is plenty of food for you. And you can sleep in Jane's room as of course she isn't around. So how do you know Jane? It's so nice to meet one of her friends from college! Are you in her classes....”
The following day I went out hunting with their 14(?) year old son to show me which properties were okay to hunt. Just walked the ditches. I got a couple.
The next year I went back. Jane (of course I can't remember her name now - we were acquaintances more than friends) was there - so they put me out in their Jet-Stream trailer. Heat, running water, the works!”
Good memories! One year, my husband invited a college classmate and his mother, who was visiting him from Turkey. The lady didn’t speak any English, but we had two small children at the time, and she was happy to hold them and play with toys. She missed her grandchildren.