After writing my final draft for our third paper my brain was a little fried. I couldn’t think about anything extremely exciting or deep to write about for this blog. But one thing has been on my mind all month, Thanksgiving.
Most, if not all families, have traditions that they practice every holiday season. I know a few friends that go out of the state, sometimes out of the country during Thanksgiving. And of course who could forget about that famous time of the year, Black Friday. My family’s traditions have changed over the years. We have moved quite a lot and we are the only part of our entire family that doesn’t live in Ohio so it gets kind of lonely. The only thing that has stuck with our tradition is spending time together. No matter where we are or what we are going through we are always together for Thanksgiving.
Over the past five or six years my dad has taken control of our activities during Thanksgiving. Before we used to just watch the parade in the morning and cook all day long. Now we watch the parade and do work afterwards to get ready for Christmas. The first thing we do is set up our outside Christmas tree. The tree outside isn’t a real tree, it is made out of 13 strings of green lights that travel from my driveway up to the top of my flag pole with a huge star on top. It sounds like an easy task, but believe me, it takes ALL DAY.
Our next tradition is to get our actual Christmas tree. We used to go out on my mom’s birthday (December 20th) and pick out a tree, but of course that has changed. Now we have to order our tree and get it the day after Thanksgiving just to make sure we have the right size. My house has 30 ft ceilings so a little 6ft tree looks a little weird. That is why we order a 14-16ft tree every year now.
And Black Friday? I have never ever gone to a mall or store on black Friday. I don’t like dealing with that many crazy people. Haha.
Everyone has their own holiday traditions. Some seem normal and some seem ridiculous. What are some of your favorite traditions during the holiday season?
I have not stopped thinking about Thanksgiving. I’m so excited to go home and eat amazing food. My family has traditions as well. We always watch the parade in the morning while cooking or turkey all day. We make lots of side dishes throughout the day. As it gets closer to dinnertime, the entire house smells amazing. My favorite part of cooking on Thanksgiving is stuffing the turkey. I love stuffing so much and I love preparing the turkey. My mom always lets me put the butter inside the turkey and then stuff it with our homemade stuffing. We then begin to make our gravy from scratch. Everything we cook comes from scratch because my mom is Italian. Once my grandparents arrive we begin the feast. After we eat and clean up all of the plates, we enjoy our pecan and key lime pie. We always discuss what we want for Christmas since black Friday is the next day.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like my family does something different every year. Sometimes it has been as my house, sometimes my aunts, grandmas, other grandmas, uncles, and friends. There are always different people every year so I wouldn't really say I have a specific tradition. If I am at home, we run in the Turkey Trot, 10K of course. My dad already signed me up. Even though I haven't told him yet that I've been slacking on running...oops. Then we come home and watch the tail end of the Macy's parade. My dad cooks all day and then I stuff my face. It is pretty fun! You should really try Black Friday! It is definitely an experience. I would say that every girl and maybe some guys should try it at least once. You just have to be a really dedicated shopper. Only a true bargain shopper can appreciate how truly wonderful this day is!
ReplyDeleteI love Thanksgiving. It is too bad that it does not get the respect it deserves being so close to the Christmas time. It is the only holiday where the only thing you have to think about relates to food. It is a glorious holiday. Our traditions have varied through the years as well with grandparents moving, and hectic work schedules. We always make time for each other, whether we can all meet up on one day or over two or three days we just never know. A tradition that my parents, sister & I have adopted is on Thanksgiving morning we run in the Turkey Trot 10k. It is a great excuse to get a second or third helping! Then we go home and start cooking while tuning the parade plays on the T.V. Now-a-days I peel, cook, mash, and season the potatoes. Then we all gather and eat our little hearts out and sit at the table in a food coma. We wait for the coma to pass as we watch the football game, and then with a an hour or so before the sun sets we all go out and toss the football around. Later that night when everyone has left and we are all starving we pull out the leftovers for round two. Like I said, it is a glorious holiday.
ReplyDeleteMy family does not have any traditions on thanksgiving. Besides the fact that my grandma always cooks her amazing turkey. My mom tells me every year that I am in charge of making dessert but that never happens. Its called having a car and going to publix. We usually get the christmas tree whenever my little sisters start talking about it non-stop. Picking out a tree is the hardest decision for my family. There are seven of us. My dad my mom and 5 girls. As you can imagine, no one can agree on one tree. So we always spend over an hour picking it out. The winning tree usually belongs to whoever cries, fights, and screams more.
ReplyDeleteFor Thanksgiving with my family we usually cook together. Although my father does most of the cooking my sister and I do what we can to help make the process easier. When the meal is ready we all eat together and discuss what we are grateful for in our lives. After that my dad and I usually watch football and talk about sports for a while. Then we go out together as a family and watch a movie together. My thanksgiving is not really unique at all but I appreciate the time with my family.
ReplyDeleteFor thanksgiving my family does much of the usual eating and cooking together. Its nice to have a day in which were all thankful but i think we should be everyday! Eating awesome food and being out of school is nice but the most important thing to me is my family. Without my family i would be nothing. I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cute little tradition that your family has. Every year after Thanksgiving my family and I break out the fake tree that we've had for about 8 years now haha (probably time for a new fake tree). We put on the lights and the ornaments. It's kind of a huge deal. We also go out to hallmark and each pick out our favorite ornament and get to hang it on our tree that year. We write our name and the year we bought it on the bottom of the ornament. It's actually pretty cool to look back on the ornaments I picked out over the years. It always somehow reflects on who I was during that time. For example, I was a HUGE harry potter fanatic while reading the series. Like everything was harry potter this and hp that. So come ornament day, I bought a harry potter ornament where him and malfoy were playing quidditch, and when you spin the little wind up part, they start moving in a motion to show that they're racing to capture the snitch. It's so cute and I still love it. These kinds of things make me really happy. I love traditions and christmas in general.
ReplyDeleteFamily traditions are always fun. Ever since my grandma passed away we have been rotating houses for celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas each year between her three children. After our Thanksgiving meal, each mom will draw a child's name, or multiple children, to determine who they will be purchasing a Christmas gift for at our family gathering. There are so many grandchildren it got to be extremely expensive to buy gifts for every one of us. Then once my family and I return home, the next day we start bringing down the Christmas decorations, or maybe Saturday if we shop on Friday. I loveeee Christmas! I have only gone black Friday shopping a few times, but I'm definitely not one of those insane shoppers. I just go and look for deals I may happen to find. I love the holidays!
ReplyDeleteMy family has a lot of traditions. For thanksgiving everyone comes over to my house and we have the normal meal but before that on thanksgiving morning my siblings and I go out to Belle Glade, FL which is a really poor side of town and we pass out thanksgiving meals just so we can give back to the community. After the meal and nap, we usually will go out and see a movie! For Christmas every year we always go to church on Christmas eve then after we'll go to a big party with my god parents, my brothers god parents and all of their family and pretty much just grub on food. When I was little my dad used to dress up as Santa and come to the party to hand out gifts! It was the cutest thing...he stopped doing it now but I wish he still because it's hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI can't relate to the Christmas Tree because I am Jewish. However, my parents and I light the menorah for Hanukkah. I always love lighting the candles on each night of the holiday. My parents make me potato latkes/pancakes with apple sauce. They are very delicious. For Thanksgiving, I watch the parade at home. I also watch some of the football games that are on TV. Then, my parents and I go to my aunt's house for dinner, which I always enjoy. I do shop with my mom on Black Friday because I want the best deals on presents that I want for Hanukkah. This Black Friday, I am going to get a new vacuum because I recently broke the one I currently have. Hope all of you guys have a nice, safe journey home and a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete30 foot ceilings?? Do you live in a church? LOL
ReplyDeleteYour traditions sound pretty cool and fun, but everybody has different ones. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, I have been home since Saturday and everything just feels different. It has never felt weird to be home before until now.. I love it though.
Thanksgiving is a waste of time and a waste of mind. Who cares? So a white dude and a Native had lunch. OH BOY! I think we all know whats really important- Christmas. Saying thanks for your family doesnt really sow them you love them, but a new flatscreen will. The only way to tell a girl you really love her is diamonds. The only way you can say you truly know a dude is get him the right game. Oh and for anyone who kept reading, I am being sarcastic.... duh
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving isn't really a big holiday with my family. My grandparents and all of my cousins live out west in places like Colorado so thanksgiving is usually just my parents, my brother and me. I personally don't like thanksgiving because it just reminds me that I don't get to spend that time with my grandparents and the rest of my family. One tradition that I do enjoy every year is watching the Macy's Day Parade with my mom.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving has always been simple in my family. I'm kind of jealous of the people that have to actually travel to other places to meet up with their giant families. Most of my family lives in New York and the other part lives over seas, so it's usually just my parents and I. Two years ago we had my Mom's friends over which was a nice change from our usual casual dinner. Since I've been away for the past three months, I appreciate the time with my parents much more than I did years before. I always watch the Macy's Day Parade every year, that is a must! Last year I gave in and went Black Friday shopping which was not that bad. I went to an outlet mall which was crowded but I got a lot of stuff for great prices! This year I decided to shop online instead and get sleep that I desperately need. But my favorite tradition is breaking the wishbone.
ReplyDeleteDuring Thanksgiving my family is very unconditional. We do not fry a turkey or bake stuffing. We don't even have turkey actually. Instead, we travel to my uncles house on the water and have a shrimp broil and fry oysters, drink, and just catch up. That is my favorite part of my holiday season no doubt. It is great to be able to see my whole family together. Being one of the only times a year we get a chance to.
ReplyDeleteI come to Tampa every year for Thanksgiving. I always have and I plan to continue for as long as my Aunt Terry and Uncle Brad will have me. We have such a great time celebrating birthdays, Thanksgiving, and seeing everyone again. My brother Ross lives in Washington state. He makes the flight to Tampa every year because he can’t imagine doing anything different for Thanksgiving. My brother Mark used to have a job at Chick-Fil-A. They worked him the day before and after Thanksgiving so he had to miss our family time. He missed all the traditions so much he made the drive down Friday night after work (he got off at 11 that night) and made it here just to spend one day with the family. It’s not the traditions that make my family great; but rather our love for each other that brings us here to Tampa year after year.
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