what do you do?

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This is our first major holiday away from family, so we're working on starting some new, Arnold family traditions! We typically alternate families each year (since Thanksgiving is all about people and food) and so the first part of the day, we're used to being just our family. The Thanksgiving Day Parade is a must in our house. I make a breakfast casserole the night before and so we all get up, turn on the parade and eat in our pj's. That is followed by as much football as we can possibly squeeze in, before heading to our extended family's home. So this year, we're having some friends over and I think we're going to make pumpkin pies and possibly eat something besides turkey for the main course. We're not really turkey fans in this house :(

So, I'm wondering what some of YOUR traditions are! I'd love to hear fun things you do and ways you start your holiday season. Do share.

Comments

Stef said…
Cool! That's pretty much what we're doing with our friends that live here. Their families live in CA and MT and so we're going to spend the evening together, as family :)

Thanks Gina!
October 30, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Melissa Joy said…
Since we have one set of family nearby, we spend all our holidays in a fairly similar fashion: mornings at home as a family (usually food and pjs are involved - sometimes games, stories, and gifts on Christmas, church on Easter), and then by midday we start getting ready to head out to the grandparents' house for time with the extended family! There is always a grand feast involved there. :) On Thanksgiving, after dinner, we head out to march around searching for our Christmas tree. That's a fun tradition. Christmas, after dinner, usually involves games of some fashion or sledding if we've been blessed with enough snow!
Also, we are encouraged by my parents to invite any friends to our feast that need a place to feast & fellowship. A lot of other young families don't have relatives nearby, so it is a great blessing to celebrate with them. We love extending our family to the Church family in that way.
But yeah, we're pretty basic. Cliche. Normal. lol. All that. :)
October 30, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Krista said…
You don't like turkey??? I am not reading your blog anymore. That is beyond strange, it is un-American! Disgraceful. ;)

We switch off Thanksgiving between Nick's family and mine. Leah is in charge of the menu for my family, so you know there is TONS of amazingly good food. We share the load of cooking, and I can't even begin to tell you how much my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it!
October 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Stef said…
None of us really do, sorry :( It makes me incredibly sleeping and weird feeling. Jason thinks its best the day after, cold and on a sandwich. Our kids don't like it very much at all. We're un-American? I knew it.
October 30, 2009 at 2:07 PM
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