I sent you a PM.
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Thanksgiving, eh.

We enjoy Christmas though because I started a tradition about 20 years ago. Growing up my next door neighbor, who was Latvian, made these delicious treats she called Pirags. She would make these every Christmas and Easter.

I got her recipe and since then we spend one of the days before Christmas making these. These aren't like Perogies. They are Ham, Onion, and Bacon wrapped in dough and baked and are delicious. You can use whatever filler you want. We spend the day making them by hand while watching three or four of our favorite Christmas movies. We make hundreds of them, then make plates of a dozen each and deliver them to friends who've come to look forward to them every year. In the process we eat some that didn't turn out quite right and save quite a few for ourselves as well.

If your holidays don't have traditions I can see how they can be less enjoyable. I know my son will carry this tradition on with his family some day.

If anyone wants my Pirag recipe PM me. Kids from about 10 years on have the ability to make them.
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.... I grew up in a family that cut wood every Christmas day. Not kidding. Fucking slave labor and my sister was a bitch princess who found ways to do jack fucking shit.

The teachers at school always used to ask the kids to share what they did on Christmas day or what their family tradition was, so I made damn sure to collect those "wow, poor kid, maybe I'll take it easier on him" bonus points every time. :-)
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it was a lot more fun when my grandparents were alive :-)
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I loved all holidays when my kids were young enough to appreciate/enjoy them. Now that my youngest is a junior in HS the only holidays I still really enjoy are Thanksgiving for the food and Independence Day for the beer/bbq/blowing shit up.
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In reality thanksgiving is a chance for family to bond. Even if it ends up like the griswolds. You have to focus on the fact that it soon will be over and you will get to go back to your mundane life.
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I've seen quite a few mention the gift giving madness and I'm 100% in that camp. It's stupid. Spending hours upon hours of shopping trying to find something for everyone only creates unnecessary stress and sometimes even a financial burden, and most often it's just a giant waste of everyone's time and money.

For example, here's a couple pics of my garage:





What in the fuck is someone going to buy me for $40-50 and have it actually be something I need or want? I'll tell you what....not a damn thing. And this doesn't even begin to reflect all the crap in the rest of the house. I already have everything I could ever want and more, I sure as hell don't need anything else cluttering up the place. Honestly I'd rather have someone come over and take something than give me a gift. At least that would help free up some space.

So that leaves 2 other options:

1. Tell people what you want or could use. Well that's dumb and takes away the element of surprise and defeats the purpose of the entire process.

2. Give money. Even worse than #1

Luckily my family sees things the same way so we stopped exchanging gifts between adults a long time ago, and even stopped buying for children in the past 10 years. And we don't miss it at all.
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I would say food/drink, but of course that comes with its own pickiness, too... I've had people gift me specific beer and I usually end up giving it away, because I just don't enjoy drinking it at all. I was gifted a Flaviar subscription last year, which was nice since you can pick out different liquor. I also get tasting boxes, so I use those to have people over for tastings.

Which brings up #4... experiences. I've bought people in KC gift cards to Restaurant Week before. Better than a blanket check or Amazon. Or stuff around town or things that feed a hobby.

I'm with ya on lists and telling people what you want..... my parents, now for decades have asked me exactly what I want. I mean... you've only known me for four decades. And by list I mean I used to send them links to specific things they could buy. That's kind of turned into gift cards, which turned into basically nothing the past couple years.

I'm kind of 50/50 on it overall.... I like it when I find something unique that I know someone will love and of course like a good surprise of a perfect gift, but could completely do away with exchanging gift cards and thoughtless gifts. My brother and I would mock that practice and would give each other a $100 bill.
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An even better play would be to pull that hundy out of a card, tell him thanks, and then stick it right into another card and walk over and hand it back to him. :-)
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Seriously nice garage, Bug.

You make the cabinets yourself?

You should get one of those special garage floors for it, that warm automatically and are easy to clean. :-)
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Expense? The holidays cost a lot. Is this what you are eluding to?
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It is a thought game. Also how you were brought up is an issue. I think it is a glass half empty/full.

Kids gone, wife with her family, so I was alone. I could have said "screw it" and done nothing. Really no biggie. But thought, "What the heck". I went and got a small real tree, lights and few ornaments, put up a few lights outside, played Christmas music whilst putting on the tree ornaments.

For the 3-6 hours of doing that crap...I had a whole month of coming home and seeing the house lights, going inside and smelling the tree and looking at the lights, reading a book by the fireplace; I had a slice of happiness.

Glass half full!!
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Holidays blow ass
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I love the holidays as long as you follow the rules for them.
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One year in elementary school we had some kid in our class whose religion didn't allow holidays. What is that, Adventist or something? This was probably third grade, and the teacher said, "Okay, we're going to have our Christmas party today! Oh, as soon I take Jebediah down to the principal's office." So we had our party and Jebediah sat in the principal's office. I don't understand how a religion like that lasts more than one generation.
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