Some family's are traditional. For the most part, so is mine. But not on Thanksgiving.
I have 2 sisters but now that they have families we grand total 11 people. Five years ago my sister chose to quit making the trek from PA to IA for Christmas anymore. I sympathize with that. Traveling is tough, and she had a toddler that made the magic of Christmas more magical at home then in a car for 12 hours. So.......
Thanksmas was born.
Let's break it down.
The Thanksgiving portion is done in one day, usually Friday to allow for a long weekend of holiday fun. There are still potatoes, turkey, relishs, pies and usually one or two stragglers from my extended family.
We cook all day (read - run around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get my mom to add more butter and salt to everything), set the table (read, chaotically tell the 3 year old to stop grabbing all the place settings off the table), get ready for dinner (read - fight for the one shower at my parents house and cameras are always threatening to capture the moment at dinner) say a prayer and eat. We follow with some after dinner drinks and conversation while the kids play.
Christmas follows the next day. We all wake up and set up the Christmas tree while we drink coffee and hawk any free standing food. Once the tree is up, we put our wrapped presents (or wrap our presents as fast and as haphazardly as we can) under the tree and start making the Christmas meal (read -desserts, we're really just having thanksgiving dinner again) we usually eat a late lunch/early dinner around 3. The extended family stragglers have either stayed the night or come back again to celebrate.
We eat and make a batch of grasshoppers (alcoholic of course, we are Catholics) and head downstairs to the magical land of presents and Christmas. The gifts are exchanged with our sister from PA. So she gives us our gifts and we give her ours.
The kids all get a presents, and we sit around and play the new board game they got or set up the toys that undoubtedly don't have batteries. Everyone goes to bed stuffed (slightly buzzed) and ready to continue our off-beat little tradition the next day.
On Sunday it depends but sometimes my sister for PA will stay the day and drive back on Monday, so Sunday starts with church and is followed by the signature gigantor breakfasts my mom insists upon. The kids continue playing with their toys and the holiday season is over for us.
Until actual Christmas, when we still have Christmas, just down one sister.
Cheers, and I hope you find an odd tradition of your own to be thankful for this year.
