What Do You Actually Do On Thanksgiving & Christmas Days? (hunting, watching tv)

[jamies]

Same thing we always do, troll people on CD!

Oh alright, we took the jeep out earlier and discovered some new (to us) petroglyphs in a desert ravine.

And now I'm starting to come out of the food coma. Time for pie!

[MarisaAnna]

We don’t have Thanksgiving here, but on Christmas Day many in Sydney spend half the day driving, rushing from one family gathering to another, sometimes two hours drive apart. Our days of doing that have finished, since my mother-in-law passed away four years ago.

So now we gather with our kids and grandkids, watch the kids play and we eat and chat. When Christmas is at our place, the kids spend most of the day swimming in the pool.

Last year we were, unknown to us of course, busy catching Covid from grandson, who suddenly developed a fever and shivers at about 6pm. We hoped he had had too much sun from all the swimming. But alas, not so and then we all had to spend many hours in queues at Covid testing sites on our Boxing Day holiday.

[prospectheightsresident]

Eat, spend time with loved ones, rinse and repeat.

[saibot]

Prepare food together, eat, clean up together, take a walk, play games, and talk during all of the above.

[Riley.]

I prepped the night before. Cooked turkey and assembled/cooked the sides in the morning. "Dinner" was at 2pm.
I completely forgot to watch the dog show which I always watch!!! arrggghh That adorable french bullie won!!!!
Talked to two of my sisters.
I did an online drawing lesson, worked a little on a macrame project, read a little bit while things were cooking, then cleaned up the kitchen. Husband worked on a chainsaw.

Oh, and I spent some time 'arguing' with someone on CD LOL.

[WouldLoveTo]

We used to talk. And that was nice.

Once a sibling had a partner who "had" to watch football. That was an annoying few years, with one person out of the room yelling at the tv.

Now? I try to talk to people. But Thanksgiving has turned into "we need to eat as fast as we can, then go through the circulars and make plans for shopping, and BTW we're leaving at 5pm".

That's not fun to me and I feel like I'm not even catching up with people I'd like to catch up with.

My SO and I now chill at home with our own turkey feast and watch a couple of movies, something we rarely do. It's nice.

[Forever Blue]

Lovely guys! I should add that my Mom and I talk DAILY without fail anyway since the day I moved out of my parents' home, so we talk all the time anyway, sometime 2-3x/day. So there's nothing to catch up on, except being in each other's presence.

I had a lovely TG time just the three of us, no hectic madness at all. We watched tennis, Shark Tank, then a little Judge Judy. But we would have watched the dog show had it been on, which we thought came on on TG day.

For Christmas, I want my mom over here at our place, where we'll do the same...talk, watch TV, and watch each other open cards/gifts. I'm thinking it would be nice to go on a drive before taking her back home.

[twinkletwinkle22]

We talk, exchange information. Even though we live only 25 minutes apart from 2 relatives we really only sit down and talk 2 or 3 times a year. I learned one person has a newly diagnosed condition and told them my husband has a different new condition. Talked about who was coming to visit at Christmas and then in January.

It's an information dump because we no longer talk on the phone.
People used to write long letters detailing family info. It's all texting now and more than 6 words won't get read.

[cjs123]

Just hang out and enjoy.

The days of holiday traveling and coming home exhausted are long gone, as are the days of shopping and gift exchanges.

One Christmas did a day trip to a preserve area and it was fun (a lot of people had the same idea!) but other than that it's just been nice to be home.

[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by twinkletwinkle22

We talk, exchange information. Even though we live only 25 minutes apart from 2 relatives we really only sit down and talk 2 or 3 times a year. I learned one person has a newly diagnosed condition and told them my husband has a different new condition. Talked about who was coming to visit at Christmas and then in January.

It's an information dump because we no longer talk on the phone.
People used to write long letters detailing family info. It's all texting now and more than 6 words won't get read.

Bolded - this! Actually just about the entire post. I have siblings that rarely respond if I reach out. Then if they hear something about me they get a bit indignant that they didn't know.

Usually holidays are a good time to sit down and catch up. But they become so chaotic and centered around a couple of individuals that one can't even do that. Add in the Black Friday frenzy and it's basically unbearable.

What I do instead is visit the people I care about throughout the year when things are not so hectic.