Here’s my list of favorite things about Thanksgiving.
1. Pecan Pie
Desserts are probably my favorite part about the Thanksgiving meal. In our family, there are typically pies galore and usually at least 2 or more of the pecan variety. Some of my relatives have been known to eat a slice as you would a piece of pizza…pick it up and shove it in your mouth! Me? I’d rather eat it with a fork and savor it as slowly as possible. It’s so sweet that I can usually only eat one slice before I feel like I might go into a diabetic coma. But, that one slice is pure heaven!
2. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Most of the time, our Thanksgiving meal isn’t until the late afternoon so we hang out most of the morning with the TV tuned to the parade. I don’t necessarily sit down and watch it from start to finish, but it’s just one of those things where it has to at least be on in the background as we are spending time together. One of these days, I would LOVE to spend Thanksgiving up in NYC and watch the parade in person. How magical!
3. Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Turkey is not my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal, but I love so many of the side dishes that are often served with it. The only time I eat cranberry sauce all year is at the holiday season, so I love to get some on Thanksgiving day. But, I don’t care for the chunky kind. Sure, it might be more organic or whatever else, but give me the jellied cranberry sauce people! It’s so good!
4. Doing nothing…all day long
I love the rest and relaxation that comes with Thanksgiving day. Sure, there might be some cooking going on in the kitchen and last minute preparations, but it just seems to happen at a slower pace for our family. I’m sure it’s not as relaxing for the host {which I’ve yet to do and pray I never will-ha!}, but even all the work that must get done can happen with the extra hands of family or friends in your home. Delegation is key! I love not having a set schedule or any set plans other than the meal. If we want to lounge in our pj’s a little longer, we do. If we want to get out in the yard and toss a football, we do. I love that it all happens at a more relaxed pace.
5. Looking through all the Black Friday ads
After we’ve stuffed ourselves silly, I love to sit down with the newspaper and go through the Black Friday ads. Since I follow a few coupon blogs, I usually have an idea of what the sales will look like, but it’s still so fun to look through the paper inserts themselves. I guess it brings back memories of looking through toy catalogs or something. If we plan to go out the next day, this is usually when we talk about what stores we’d like to hit up.
6. Candied sweet potatoes
I don’t even know if this is the official name for the dish, but my mom makes the best sweet potato dish with nuts, brown sugar, and marshmallows. I’ve seen recipes on the internet for dishes that look very similar with raving reviews as well. It’s so nice to be able to get in a vegetable when it tastes like a dessert! 🙂 It’s one of those dishes that only appears on Thanksgiving and it doesn’t last long.
7. Getting caught up on some of the cheesy Hallmark movies
If you’ve read here long, you probably know that we don’t subscribe to cable. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been on the phone with either my mom or grandmother and they ask me if I saw the most recent Hallmark movie*. Whether we celebrate Thanksgiving at my parents or at my grandmother’s house, they have cable and it’s a great weekend to get my Hallmark movie* fix.
8. Catching a movie on Friday evening
We don’t always do this one, but we have off and on over the years. I remember seeing Home Alone* for the first time on the Friday after Thanksgiving and it was such a great memory {great movie too!}. Last year, we saw Lincoln*. We don’t have official plans yet, but it’s fun when we can make it happen and there is a great movie to see.
9. Being with family and friends
This has to be my all-time favorite part of Thanksgiving. I love all the other things, but more than anything, I love just being with the people I love the most. We don’t have to have plans for it to be fun. We just love being together and talking.
10. It begins the Christmas season.
I love that Thanksgiving starts off the Christmas season! This is such a special time of year and I am looking forward to making lots of new memories and enjoying a few traditions that we’ve begun already as a family.
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