Grocery stores in the Lehigh Valley bustling on Thanksgiving Eve, people share importance of meal | Allentown Area

If you haven’t bought your groceries yet, time is running out.

Frozen turkeys need to be thawing out, and side dishes aren’t going to cook themselves.

Thanksgiving Eve is one of the busiest days of the year at Redners on Lehigh Street in Allentown, and the people we spoke with have different reasons why the Thanksgiving meal is important to them.

People shopped for turkeys and ham just hours from the big day, but this isn’t Vasant Dudhwala of Allentown’s first trip around the Thanksgiving table. He’s celebrated 45 of them since immigrating to the U.S. from India in the 1980’s.

“It’s a holiday to enjoy family. Family together. At my house I am thinking maybe 10 to 15 people,” said Dudhwala.

Abby Lozano of Allentown and her 7-year-old daughter Julia are planning a Thanksgiving meal together.

“We’re getting a lot. We’re getting the celery, the potatoes, we’re getting everything today, honestly,” said Lozano.

The girls are even trying something new this year.

“We’re doing a pie this year. We’re doing a pudding pie. We’ve never done that,” Lozano said.

Thanksgiving is a time to be with loved ones. For Terry Sicher, it’s a time to remember those who can’t be there. Poinsettias for his mother.

“My mom, she passed three years ago. And I put a planter every week. It makes up for stuff I didn’t do, when she was alive. She’s not at the dinner table. I miss that,” said Sicher.