Hey There, Friends!
The holiday season is officially upon us and while I tend to gloss over Thanksgiving I’ve decided to devote this week to the November holiday that tends to get the short end of the stick. It’s all about you, Thanksgiving. We’re gonna talk menus, fashion, and of course today we’re kicking off the week with traditions. I know many of you {are like me} enjoy seeing how others do things so I’m sharing how our Thanksgiving holidays usually look.
Every other year my parents and brother along with his family come to visit us for Thanksgiving. Those years are always more fun {and this year happens to be one of those fun years}! Otherwise, it’s just our family of six and is way more low key.
Here are a few things we have on the to-do list this Thanksgiving week…
*Night of Cooking-Ebby Lee and I like to do some cooking in the kitchen before all our guests arrive. This way we can pop a breakfast casserole in the oven and we aren’t doing as much cooking while they’re here. We still have to do some but anything we can make ahead or assemble ahead, we do! We usually have Christmas movies playing in the background and Tab takes the other kids out of the house. Soon Britty will get to join the cooking fun!
*Family Recipes-My family has been making this Crockpot Chicken and Dressing recipe for years. We usually make the cornbread and chicken before the big day and then on the morning of Thanksgiving we’re just dumping everything in the slow cooker. I usually add in a new recipe here or there but our family recipes…you know the ones my grandma has been making for years are the ones we pull out on Thanksgiving.
*Matching Pajamas-I’m sharing how we were looking bright and early on Thanksgiving morning. 🙂 But matching Christmas pajamas are a fun tradition I started when my family comes to visit. My mom, sister-in-law, and I wore these in 2018 and I might have already ordered us a new pair for 2020.
*Kid Table-Doesn’t everyone have one of these? A kid table designed especially for the children…with colors and a paper tablecloth.
*Christmas Fun-The few days after Thanksgiving are always spent enjoying a little Christmas cheer. We don’t see my family at Christmas so it’s a great way to wrap up a fun few days with them. One of our favorite places to visit is Bass Pro Shop to see all their Christmas fun.
And the Home for the Holidays event in Downtown McKinney is another must!
What are some Thanksgiving traditions you have in your family?
I’d LOVE to hear all about them!
Hope you have a great day!
XO
What fun traditions!!! We always decorate for Christmas the day after thanksgiving!!
http://www.elspethsdaybyday.com
Awwwww! What fun Thanksgiving traditions!! We always eat dinner (just the six of us) the night before Thanksgiving in Highland Park and it's one of my favorite things we do. I also love watching the Parade and eating a great breakfast!
I live in Georgia, and my parents live in Grapevine. Whenever we come to Texas for Thanksgiving, we celebrate Christmas with them as well. My mom has named it “Thanksmas” and it’s our favorite. We celebrate both Thanksgiving and Christmas that week, and my kids get their presents. It is such a fun way to kick off the holiday season. My kids love getting to open presents and it helps spread out the gifts so they can really appreciate the things from my side of the family!
Elspeth-I know lots of friends who do this same thing. Such a great time to do it!
Shay-that’s FUN!! And super festive, I’m sure!
Lindsey-I LOVE this and we probably need to steal the name from your family! We usually don’t do presents but other than that all the time together really resembles Christmas. I’m gonna use it and see what they all say. 😉
Love the matching pjs on Thanksgiving!
How will your Thanksgiving be different this year because of COVID19? I heard somewhere that if we want to spend Thanksgiving with people who are not part of our regular household, we all should isolate for two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, which would be November 12th. With kids in school, this of course, is not possible. Then, do we just risk it?
Erika-
Did you post the entire Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing recipe online because all I see is the recipe card and it's not complete in the instructions?? If not can you, I checked out others and yours looks great. Thank you!
Can we get the back of the card for the instructions? I'd love to try your family's recipe!
Carly-My post on Wednesday is our menu so I already have uploaded it to that post! I didn’t even think about it being a tease today. So sorry! But I promise-it’s coming!
Terri-Promise it’s coming on Wednesday! I should have said that! So sorry!
Hilda-I haven’t heard that but I will say if I had any immune compromised family members it’s definitely something we’d be doing or we possibly just wouldn’t get together.
Due to COVID we are just having my Mom and my in laws. Not extending the invite to anyone else.
Hilda- you are correct and they are asking for Thanksgiving to be different. For us, we are keeping it small and we are actually quarantining for 2 weeks prior and everyone coming has agreed to it. My kids have an option to remote learn and we are choosing that option the 2 weeks prior to it. It doesn’t really matter if you have family that is immune compromised or higher risk ( pregnant, 65 and older, etc). If someone has it and spreads it then you go out to the community and spread it. That is the fear. Right now my youngest likely has a cold but because of COVID we currently have to all lay low until she gets a COVID test and the results back. So for us it’s going to likely be more then 14 days of quarantining!! We have unfortunately lost a family member to COVID, we aren’t taking risks.
When my Mom moved to Florida 17 years ago, we began celebrating Thanksgiving exclusively with my husband's family. Some years, my Mom joins us and the in-laws but this year we are going to Florida! I couldn't be more excited about it. Well if I am being honest, I am not looking forward to 12 hours in the car or Atlanta traffic Thanksgiving week but super excited to spend it with my Mom and brother for the first time in many many years.
We keep Thanksgiving really low key and I think that is one of the reasons why it is my favorite holiday. We end our day with a family viewing of Elf while we eat our dessert and relax by the fire.
Love that this week is all about Thanksgiving!!!
Up till this year (because my stepdaughter has a basketball game this year), we've always had my in-laws over the night before Thanksgiving for our family meal. I make all of the food, which is fine by me because I love to cook for a crowd! After dinner we always watch Christmas Vacation and then the SNL Thanksgiving special. The last 2 years I've also had my family over on Thanksgiving day. We watch football and Christmas movies and play cards. My aunt always (like 30+ years always) brings some kind of craft for the kids to do.
Now I have all the warm fuzzies 😊
Can you share the crockpot chicken recipe?
Hi Rachel! It’s coming in the post tomorrow! So sorry! I didn’t even think about it when I posted!