Holiday Traditions

I grew up in a Jewish household of Israeli descent, so our holiday traditions were built around Jewish holidays like Chanukah and Passover.  Many of those traditions still stand...for at least one night of Chanukah I will light candles on the phone with my parents and then we'll sing the Chanukah songs (Donovan got video of this last year, and he thinks it's hilariously adorable).  What I don't really have are holiday traditions around the non-Jewish holidays like Thanksgiving.   

Last year was the first year that Donovan and I spent Thanksgiving together.  We decided not to travel anywhere and not to go to anyone's house.  Instead, we declared it Pajama Thanksgiving.  We spent the day in our pajamas, even going to pick up our holiday meal from Mimi's in our pjs!  We watched holiday movies, including Love Actually (one of my most favoritest!), and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, ate our holiday meal, and had a spectacular day.

A couple of months ago I was chatting with a friend of mine, and we came up with the idea of an orphan Thanksgiving, where any of our friends that don't have family close by can all get together and spend the holiday with one another.  I immediately thought of our amazing Pajama Thanksgiving last year, and after talking to Donovan about it, we decided to host Orphan Pajama Thanksgiving this year!  I challenged Bob, our contractor, to get the family room and dining room done by the holiday for us, and he delivered!  Carpet went in today, and tomorrow Bob and Michael are coming back to put on the finishing touches.  So far we have two or three definite attendees, and lots of "maybe" or "we'll stop by in the evening for dessert" responses.  If you don't have plans for the holiday and are in the area, let us know!  :)

I'm excited to see how this holiday turns out.  I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun!  We're getting a large holiday meal from Mimi's (including a whole turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, pie and more), I've got a recipe for pumpkin pie martinis that I'm excited to try out, the house looks *amazing*, we've got games to play and movies to watch, and we're spending the day with awesome people!  Will this turn into a holiday tradition?  Guess we'll have to wait and see!  Now I just need to pick out which pajamas I'm going to wear!!  :)

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