The Lacy family is going to have a typical traditional Thanksgiving dinner, a little football on the television, festive centerpieces, tablecloths and candles — and more than 100 dinner guests.
For the eighth year in a row, Chester and Lynn Lacy and their daughter and son-in-law, April and

Damon Hill, will invite the less fortunate to break bread with them on Thanksgiving Day from 1 to 4 p.m. at the La Grange Community Center, 200 Washington Ave. The doors are open to the homeless and shut-ins, and those with little resources to provide a Thanksgiving feast.

In previous years, when the family celebrated the holiday with just themselves, April Hill said her mother would always make sure the family remembered there were those less fortunate, and that she wished something could be done for them.

“One year we said we were going to do it, and we just went into action,” Hill said.

For the first few years, the Lacys and the Hills foot the bill for the entire spread. Now, several residents and businesses make a contribution for the feast. The Park District of La Grange offers up the center free of charge, Hill said.

Hill and her mother do about 80 percent of the cooking, and the menu includes deep-fried turkeys, ham, chicken and a myriad of side dishes.

“When my family gets up on Wednesday, we don’t get to bed until Thursday night,” Hill said.

And the meal is served as though it was in the home.

“Its just not an ordinary dinner,” Lynn Lacy said. “We have candles centerpieces and tablecloths.

We bring in a television set so they feel like they are at home. We all sit down together for dinner, just like visiting grandmother.”

For Hill, the gesture is a way of giving thanks.

“We’ve been truly blessed so we like to pass the blessing on,” she said.

Lacy said she and her husband were both able to retire this year from jobs that allowed them to have a home, unlike the homeless.

“We can easily be in that predicament,” she said.