Sunday, November 20, 2011

Tis The Season For Traditions

Happy Thanskgiving.




This year on Thanksgiving, I'll have 23 family members at my house for a traditional feast. For this I am extremely grateful. My husband's smoking the turkey, I'll do the mashpotatoes and everyone else brings the goodies that will make it a complete meal. I'm looking forward to my sister-in-law's cream-cheese corn and my mother-in-law's sweet potatoe casserole. My mom's pumpkin pies, made from scratch, are the stuff legends are made of. This year I won't worry quite so much about overeating, because the following week I'll be running a marathon in Dallas.




When the meal is over, some of the family will leave to meet up with their spouse's family members. My sisters, sister-in-law and I, will gather around the Black Friday ads and start planning our shopping attack on Friday.




I hate that the stores are opening at midnight etc. these days. It takes some of the fun out of the Black Friday experience. The earliest I've been in line for a sale was 4:00 a.m. NORMALLY, we meet at Michaels at 6:00 a.m. and spend the entire day together shopping. We do 90% of our shopping on that day. When we were younger, we'd gather at my brother's house afterwards and wrap the gifts. Now days, we finish up around 8:00 p.m. and call it a day.




Our Thanksgiving planning of our Black Friday shopping is a holiday tradition I cherish. What are some of your favorite family traditions?




Lisa Wells

7 comments:

  1. We really didn't have a family tradition, other than having family over to eat a huge meal! Then we'd sit around and watch football or watch a movie.

    But I'm happy to have any moment with my family, no matter that they never stop talking during a movie, eat all the rolls before we get seconds, or the bickering that ensues!

    Lisa (and the other angels) I hope you all have Happy Thanksgivings! Love you all!

    HUGS
    Trish

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  2. I guess the one tradition is just the part of having the family together. It seems hard a lot these days with some members working or out of state (me). Yet, this year I will be with my family for Thanksgiving and I'm so excited. It's kinda bitter sweet since it's the first one in many years without a spouse but one thing will not change is the fact that I have my family who loves each other even when we bicker.

    Sometimes my mom and sister-in-laws and I will hit the Black Friday sales but not sure yet about this year. I do know we'll all be watching the Arkansas/LSU game though. WOOOOOPIIIIGGGSOOOOIIEEEE...uh, sorry Trish and Lori. Love you guys but I love my Hogs too.

    Anyway, Lisa, thank you for sharing your family traditions with us. I hope you have a great marathon experience too! Happy Thanksgiving to you and the rest of my fellow Angels!

    HUGS,
    JD :)

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  3. Enjoy that marathon! For us Canadians, we have Thanksgiving early in October. Christmas is the big holiday here full of visiting, food, and family & friends. It's my favorite time of year. Makes me like winter more up here!

    Happy Thanksgiving to all my Southern Angels!

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  4. I think my husband and I are going to his sister's for dinner. My kids won't be with us; it's their father's year to have them for Thanksgiving.

    We didn't have any traditions in my family growing up. During my first marriage, there was usually a huge gathering of my then-husband's family; unfortunately the tradition there usually involved most of the adults getting drunk and at least one fight...

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  5. My ex-husband used to have that kind of "drunken" tradition, Karenna. This year was my first Thanksgiving without my kids. I managed. Christmas hopefully will be easier b/c his family celebrates on different days than mine.

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  6. Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday (whether in October or November). Our tradition was a little broken this year, but in a good way. We normally spend Thanksgiving with one side of the family then drive to see the other side later that evening. The problem is that one lives two hours away and the other lives five hours away.

    For the first time in years, we didn't drive the five hour drive. I missed seeing family, but I actually got to relax this time around.

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  7. Sorry I'm late with this Lisa, but I'm pleased to say that my family has chosen my hometown to have the big Thanksgiving get together. It's been at my house a couple of times and at my daughters a couple of times but she lives in Kinder also, so that's a huge plus for me. I've started a new tradition the last couple of years by making crosswords and wordsearches using family names and clues. I give little prizes for the person who finishes each first. You'd be surprised at how adults and the older kids can get into something like that.

    Great Blog, Lisa!
    Lori

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