QOTD Black Friday Edition: Thanksgiving... Are you celebrating? (11/25)
 

Just a few more days and Thanksgiving and Black Friday is here...

Are you celebrating Thanksgiving? Does your family have certain traditions?
We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Belgium, so I'm excited to find out how you celebrate it. :wub:

Yes! We celebrate with the traditional turkey dinner & most of the sides. This year, it's kinda quiet- as it'll only be us (DH, me, 2 kidds) plus our hockey billet & we've invited my hubby's grandma. Usually if we are home, we also have the in laws- but they escaped to florida for vacation. We alternate with my family in western WA (about 300 miles away); this year was home!

I also like to go shopping in the evening to a few stores, then again early friday morning! :)

We will celebrate in "traditional military style"-- gather with people from work, try to make as many of our usual dishes as we can, given the locally available ingredients & kitchen limitations, and observe the differences between each of our family traditions/recipes (i.e. "they didn't put marshmallows on the sweet potato casserole?!?!?" and "I would have liked stuffing so much more if my mom would have made it like this!").
Sounds strange to say, but after spending 10 holiday seasons overseas, spending Thanksgiving & Christmas with family during the 4 years we were stationed in the states felt really weird. And then we requested another overseas assignment, LOL.

We are celebrating a traditional Thanksgiving this year. My parents (my dad and step-mom), my brother, our 3 kids, and my husband and I will all be eating at our house. It's the first time my parents are coming to our house for Thanksgiving because they usually ate with my step-mom's family, but unfortunately, her mom and sister both passed recently. We haven't spent as much time together as I would like (it's a long story!), so this is a big deal! And of course I feel the need to have everything be perfect....I've been cleaning up a storm, and we are mostly all decorated for Christmas. So, I get up this morning and the top third of our tree lights have blown out....not just a few bulbs, either, half the strand is black, burnt-out bulbs.....

Thanksgiving is always a fun holiday for my family. Being Americans but living in Canada we celebrate both Canadian Thanksgiving (in October) and American Thanksgiving. As kids we always thought we were super special because our parents would let us stay home from school that day, and we've kept that going with out kids as well. We always have dinner at my brothers house, and thats where we kick off the holiday season.... the kids make out their Christmas lists after dinner, we ALWAYS pop Christmas Vacation on the TV as the first Christmas movie of the season, we make our plans as to who is hosting which dinner during december etc. It's a fun night.

As for Black Friday, it never used to be a thing here in Canada.... but the past few years they've kind of adopted it in a way, we actually just had our black friday sales this past week and I got what I needed to get (it's pretty laid back in these parts.... the biggest line and crowd might be 10 people in walmart and even that is "too peopley" for me to go out, so I sent the hubby in lol I'm more of an online shopper so I have a small list of places to check out on black friday and cyber monday.... I'm hoping to have all my shopping done this week (besides food of course)..... fingers crossed :)

Our Canadian thanksgiving comes sooner than the American one and we would usually have a turkey dinner but this year we didn't. With work schedules and whatnot, we didn't have a family dinner. I spent the day with my granddaughter, walking along the oceanside and grabbing some take-out to snack on in the afternoon. That was my thanksgiving this year.

Thanksgiving is the holiday my extended family gathers for, so we'll be at my sister's in New York. It will be us, my sister's family, my brother's family, my parents, and a few cousins.

In the 19 Thanksgivings we've celebrated as a married couple, we have only hosted Thanksgiving once...so this year we are {apparently} making up for lost time and hosting it TWICE. I am having a much better attitude about it than I normally would have because it's hard to mess up sweet potatoes made with a cup and a half of brown sugar.

We invited out Filipino friends over last night (20 adults & 7 children), and we'll have our American friends over Friday afternoon (Our kids have school on Thursday but are off Friday). Turkey, pies, cranberries, rolls & casseroles.

Thank you for sharing all your stories! I LOVED reading them. :wub:
Keep 'm coming.

It's just a regular week here in Belgium. Nothing special. Kids go to school, adults go to work. Lol.

We used to gather with my husband's mom's side of the family back in WA state. But since we moved to Maryland there's only his dad and new wife and they are doing it with her family. So it will only be us and me making a turkey for the first time. Wish me luck! lol

Are you celebrating Thanksgiving?
Yes, but in a totally NON-traditional way. We will be having pizza and family day--just us.

Does your family have certain traditions?
No, not really. We don't have very many family traditions for anything really. We just go with the flow and enjoy it when everyone is home and as a family.

Yup. We celebrate Thanksgiving. I love hosting, but right now my sister in law and I take turns hosting. This year is her year. BUT I still have to cook almost the whole meal and take it with us, because I have a son with celiacs and a daughter with a list of allergies and food sensitivities right now. ( I would rather just host).

Our thanksgiving traditions are: Watch the parade while we (mostly I) cook, we have a table cloth we sign, and I usually take one large group photo. Them we use Thanksgiving weekend to decorate for Christmas.

We had an early Thanksgiving this past Saturday at my sister's because that's when all her grandkids could be there. I'm cooking Thanksgiving but having it at lunch instead of dinner because my FIL has to drive an hour to be here, and we don't want him driving home at night. I'm roasting a chicken instead of turkey like I did last year. Gee, I guess that I don't have any traditions--things seem to change every year. The once constant is stuffing. I must have stuffing on Thanksgiving! lol

Almost forgot! I'm adding a new tradition this year.... I'm going to read Balloons Over Broadway to my kids & hopefully our Thanksgiving hosts have AFN (Armed Forces Network) so we can turn on the Macy's parade after dinner--will air at 7pm here! https://youthlitreviews.com/wp-conte...r-Broadway.jpg

We usually like watching the dog show too, but it will probably be on in the middle of the night or while we're at school/work on Friday. Yep, we all have school & work on Friday!

Traditional Thanksgiving - we have hosted for the last 15 years... my parents and my husband's family... over the years the numbers are down, so only 11 this year. I do most of my cooking today and then what has to be made tomorrow like turkey, roasted squash and mashed potatoes (which I know you can make ahead).

As for traditions... my son will wear a turkey hat and make everyone write down what they are thankful for... my husband always makes the turkey (every year he tries to outdo himself with different techniques)... so not that exciting...

Well, this is the first year that my children are grown and scattered so we are doing a small scale Thanksgiving with some foods we don't usually have, trying some new dishes, etc. Then on Dec 8th we are having Thanksmas. A Thanksgiving / Christmas mashup for 36 hours when all my children and all but one significant other will all be here and we will do a big traditional dinner then with all the family favorites like deviled eggs, candied yams, pea salad, home made pies, pumpkin bread, homemade Christmas candies and cookies etc. Its gonna be so much fun. I so can not wait.

Then I can not wait to scrap it all! lol

My husband loves to watch the parade, too. He and the kids also loved to watch the dog show after. so cute

I worked Monday this week so I could have Friday off and be with my kids. They only had school Monday & Tuesday this week. We'll be going to my sister's (who is local) for Thanksgiving dinner (but it's at lunchtime). I am bringing my mom's broccoli-cheese casserole. We are also having turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, apple & pumpkin pies, and another vegetable. We lost my grandfather last month, my sister's BF is out of town, and my nephew may be at his dad's so I think it might just be my sister, my parents, my aunt, my grandmother, my kids, & me.

I bought my daughter & me matching onesie unicorn jammies and my son dinosaur ones so we will wear those Friday or Saturday and hang out at the house snacking, board gaming, and watching Disney+. Whichever day doesn't work out we will run errands and help my parents decorate their house for Christmas. I need to work out our Christmas/December schedule before the weekend is out, too; I usually have time after Thanksgiving weekend to plan but not this year!

Just an ordinary week here......might do some online shopping but more than likely not as I can’t be bothered dealing with the incompetent delivery drivers from the courier companies

I am still at my mom's...missing my hubby & boys. I am celebrating Thanksgiving with my son-in-law's family today, and my family on Saturday, which will be nice!

I work every year, but normally at home, we have a work potluck. I am working away from home this year, so it was just a normal day.