HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Wishing you all the happiest, most joyful and thankful day with your family and friends. Remember how blessed you are with so much more than so many. I am so thankful for each of you this Thanksgiving who support this blog of mine. Your comments, daily visits, and following along over the years mean the world to me as it all allows me to do something I love. I’m so grateful!

Scroll down to the end of this post to read 5 of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions that my family and I have.

SHOP THE LOOK

5 THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

1. Watch the Macy’s Day Parade. Every Thanksgiving morning ever since I can remember, we have watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade together. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve kind of graduated from watching and joining my mom in cooking, but my sisters still sit there for hours watching all the coverage and floats on tv.

2. Share what each of us are thankful for. Before digging into our Thanksgiving meals, we each go around the table and share what we are most thankful for that year. For the little ones, it’s always something like food and family, but the older ones of us sometimes get a little sentimental. There’s always a tear or two shed, with of course some laughs mixed in too. This is by far my favorite tradition of ours and what I always look forward to on Thanksgiving day most.

3. Go through the Thanksgiving Day/Black Friday Sales paper and flyers. My uncle always brings over the Thanksgiving paper – which is the biggest of the year – containing all of the retailer flyers and sales for Black Friday. We go through the hundreds of flyers, yelling out different deals and seeing who can find the ‘best one’ or things we just have to go out and get. With the rise of online shopping, Amazon, and more, Black Friday sure isn’t what it used to be. But I’m determined to keep this fun tradition alive as long as there’s a newspaper being printed!

4. Watch some football.. with some pie. Not everyone in my family is all about football, but I loved heading to the couch after a long morning of cooking and a long afternoon of eating to catch some of the football games on TV. We usually wait an hour or two after dinner to eat dessert too – pie and some football is the perfect combo!

5. Cook! This might seem a little silly… but you’d be surprised to know how many people go out (country clubs) or order meals from local restaurants/catering places for Thanksgiving Day. In our home, we cook everything from scratch! My mom usually spearheads the whole thing, from the turkey to mashed potatoes, butternut squash, pies and everything in between. I’ve taken on the responsibility of making some of the gluten free dishes for the past few years. The hustle and bustle in the kitchen bright and early Thanksgiving morning always gets me excited!