I want to become vegetarian but I don't want to seem ungrateful to my family?!

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Perhaps you could talk privately with your granddad and with your mum and ask them how they would feel if you decided for _________ (health, environmental, ethical, combination) reasons to try a vegetarian diet. You should do your research ahead of time and explain why it is important to you to give vegetarianism a try at this time. It might help if you look for ways that you can fit your dietary needs in with the family meal plan and have simple ways to suggest for doing so that would cause very little upheaval.

If you enlist the aid of the people who are most emotionally tied to the meal preparations, and they are willing to help you, you have 80 percent of the battle accomplished.

It sounds as though you may have a normal, functional family. In that case, I'd be willing to bet you will be able to reach an accommodation.

How can you offend them by turning into a person with principles, morals and beliefs?
No way.

You're not ungrateful, any more than if they always fed you beet soup and you really hated it.
Just eat all the trimmings, and all the stuff surrounding. Nobody will turn on you and it is certainly NOT ungrateful to eat happily all the food on the table. You're not suggesting that 100% of the people in your family like 100% of the food on the sunday table?

No way. ALso, there must be some smokers, or wine drinkers and that's not for everyone either.
Make your mark.

Don't think about selfish humyns think about all the innocent animals that are being used and abused for those meals. The only ones being ungrateful are those who eat meat. They are ungrateful to mother Earth for providing them a nice place to live, instead they take her and destroy her and everybody on her. Animals are not ours to use for any reason and there is never a reason too exploit them especially not because you don't want to "seem ungrateful".

I think the death and suffering of probably trillions upon trillions of animals around the world sort of heavily outweighs "ungratefulness" about 100 trillion to .00000000000000000000000000000000000001

Plus eating and consuming animals and animal products is not healthy at all in any way shape or form for you or anybody else. Not that that fact really matters because even if it were healthy exploiting animals for any reason is wrong on every level.

Here are plenty of great cruelty free recipes for sunday dinners as well as all meals:
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/
http://vegweb.com/

vegan because animals are not property

Just let them know ahead of time that you are planning to go vegetarian. Eat everything that is vegetarian, and bring a dish of your own to share. As your grandfather for a tip. "Grandad, I am planning on going vegetarian, and I really want to bring something good for dinner. I want to share it with everyone. What is something that would go well with the roast but is free from meat, poultry, and fish?"

As for eating at home, learn to cook for yourself for goodness' sake! Mom would probably be thrilled if you asked her to teach you to cook, even if you were "only" wanting to learn vegetarian dishes. Knowing the basics of chopping, sauteing, etc, is great!

I recently decided to make the same choice, and lost of family and friends were a bit shocked and I could see that they felt more inconvenienced than anything.

Explain to then why you are making this choice and how they can help you. Als try introduce them to foods that you like, make something and take it along with you.

Because Im new to this lifestyle I started by cutting out red meat, so that its easier on everyone, Iv noticed that my mom makes more of an effort to eat healthy but not making such and fuss out of not having meat

If I were you, I'd evaluate your reasons for wanting to "go veg." Are you concerned about your health? Animal ethics? The environment? etc. Then I'd choose one family member to talk to -- maybe your mum. Explain how you feel, ask for her opinion, and see if you can understand each other's point of view. If you live at home, being the only vegetarian in your family requires some form of compromise. It's tough sometimes, but if your family respects your views and you respect theirs, it should work out okay. :)

i was a vegetarian for a year, until i got pregnant with my son and i gotta tell ya, it isn't easy. i come from a family of cattle farmers and needless to say they were not happy about my decision. my best advice would be do not get defensive about your decision, instead try to calmly explain why you made the choice you did. maybe then they may not neccessarily understand it, but they'll leave you alone about it. my family always had to throw in the occasional teasing comment every once in a while but overall they took it ok. its just not an easy thing to do theres no easy way around it.

sit them down, and discuss your reasons for going vegetarian with them. let them know that you have taken into consideration how much effort they put into family meals, and that you are willing to help make meatless substitutes for yourself and anyone willing to try them with you. show your mom or grandad some easy vegetarian substitutes for typically meat filled items. hopefully you have a tolerant family!

Protein is an essential nutrient in our bodies and without protein you will be mal nourished. I respect your decision but to be honest i tried being a vegetarian once and it is sh*t. Meat is amazing and i know you have good intentions but unfortunately everyone eats meat and if you dont eat it, someone else will...