My Thanksgiving Un-Traditions.

      Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! (Or as I think we should all say, Happy Black Friday Eve!) I wanted to share a different type of post on the holiday this year, and talk a little bit about what I call my Thanksgiving "Un-Traditions." 

Photo by Deeana Kourtney Photography

     #NoShameinMyGame: I'm actually pretty vocal about the fact that Thanksgiving isn't one of my favorite holidays. It has nothing to do with the meaning behind the day- I'm all about showing thankfulness and gratitude, and I do like the reminder that the holiday provides everyone with! My disliking it has more has to do with the traditions. I'm in the big minority of poeple in that minus stuffing (which I only like in small amounts), I really kind of hate all traditional Thanksgiving foods! I always feel awful and ungrateful and most Thanksgiving dinners since I barely eat anything... especially since it's a day all about being thankful for food! Haha. But it's true- I'm just not into traditional Thanksgiving foods. I'm also not a fan of football, and so many Thanksgiving celebrations revolve around watching "the big game." And lastly, November is one of my least favorite months of the year. Everything outdoors is dried up and dying, and it's usually very cold, especially here in New England. And Thanksgiving travel... don't even get me started on it! Thanksgiving weekend consistently seems to rank as the busiest time of the year for air and road travel, even beating out Christmas and Memorial Day weekends. No thanks!!!


      Now that I've shared everything that I don't like about Thanksgiving, of course there are a few things that I do like as well. In college, Thanksgiving was always a much needed long weekend during the fall semester! (This year in the working world it's just one day off and not a full long weekend, but still, a random Thursday off!) It is the day before Black Friday, which is one of my FAVORITE days of the year, and the month of November's saving grace. Thanksgiving also symbolizes the true start of the Christmas season! And of course, it is a great reminder to take some time and reflect on all the things in life to be thankful for- the real reason for the day!


     My most favorite holiday is Easter, and second of course would be Christmas. These are the holidays that I like the celebrate the most, and Christmas is the one that I always *have* to celebrate with my parents, as I'm sure many of you as well feel you must celebrate with your family! Since I went to college out-of-state, Thanksgiving unintentionally became "my" holiday starting back in 2012. Since then, I've only gone home to Maine for one Thanksgiving, and quite honestly, I don't ever plan to do so again in the near future at least! I've actually started to become a little bit fond of Thanksgiving because of the experiences that I've been able to create for myself on the holiday during the past few years. Each year has brought a totally new type of celebration that keeps things interesting, and although I still don't enjoy eating Thanksgiving turkey... I now sort of look forward to Thanksgiving as my own special holiday, where new friends temporarily become family, and the tradition is not to have a tradition. 😊


     2012: High Point, NC, with a friend from my freshman year of college at my first university. Black Friday: Hanes Mall in Winston Salem, NC


     2013: Home to Maine. Black Friday: The Maine Mall, South Portland, ME


     2014: Thanksgiving breakfast at IHOP, and Thanksgiving dinner and a bible trivia tournament in Charlotte with a college classmate and her family. Black Friday: SouthPark Mall and Concord Mills, Charlotte, NC


     2015: Pennsylvania for the long weekend with a former college roommate. Black Friday: Philadelphia Premium Outlets and King of Prussia Mall.


     2016: Attended Charlotte's Thanksgiving parade, and then had Thanksgiving dinner with my roommate Ciera's extended family that live outside of the city. I was still working in retail at this time last year, so I had to work on Thanksgiving night! Black Friday: SouthPark Mall, Charlotte NC.

   

      As you can see, I've gotten the chance to do some very different things over the last five years! I'm always grateful for those who have opened their homes to me back in Charlotte and elsewhere and let me spend Thanksgiving day with their families. I do think it's very fun to get to see how other families celebrate the day, and be exposed to new traditions! 

     Today, I'm dog-sitting for a coworker over all weekend, so I'll begin my day with Skippy. Then I'm looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner with some people in my bible study at church! My friend Anna and I both aren't traveling home this year, so it was so nice of other members of our bible study to invite us for the holiday! After dinner, the agenda is to have a night of holiday crafting and DIYs planned, so I'm really looking forward to that! Anna and I both have to work tomorrow, so we decided to go shopping together on Black Friday night instead of early that morning (like I have in most years past!). I'm not too worried about it- as long as I hit a mall at some point on Black Friday- that's good enough for me this year in Vermont! Haha. 

     Someday, when I have a larger apartment or home of my own, I would love to host a Friendsgiving dinner on Thanksgiving for people like me who live and work out-of-state and aren't able to get home for the holiday! My fun twist on it is that each year I'd like to take a different type of ethnic cuisine, and make that the culinary theme of the year, since I don't like most of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. Like do Mexican one year, Indian the next, then Chinese... etc etc. Wouldn't that be fun?! I think so at least! 😊

     Thanks so much for reading about my Thanksgiving "Un-Traditions!" Are you big on spending the day with family and doing annual traditions, or are you like me and do you try different things each year for Thanksgiving? I'd love to hear!

     Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale posts are on the way- starting tomorrow! Stay tuned!

     God Bless,

     xoxo Annaliese