Wedding couples at Thanksgiving

For many families,
Thanksgiving Day is
a time for families
and friends to reunite,
to watch football games
and Thanksgiving Day
parades, consume lots
and lots of traditional
Thanksgiving Day foods,
and to remember and share
old stories and experiences.

Put Your Relationship First

The most important thing the two of you can do to make
your Thanksgiving Day holiday a joyous and stress free
occasion is to put your relationship with one another
first.

• Stand together and support one another as you communicate your holiday decisions to your families and friends.
• When making decisions about where to go, who to see, and how to spend the day, remember to make decisions together that are life-giving to your marriage.

Make Thanksgiving Less Chaotic and More Meaningful

If Thanksgiving Day for the two of you doesn't match the ideal
and is a day of stress and turmoil in your marriage, check out
some of these ideas for making the holiday more meaningful and
less chaotic.
• Consider having your own Thanksgiving Day dinner alone.
Then join your families later for dessert.
• If you really don't want to choose between which family
to spend the holiday with, then get away together. You don't have
to go far away. There are probably some great resorts near your
home that have holiday packages that include a romantic place to
stay and Thanksgiving dinner.
• You can also get away as a family if you have children. We had
a great Thanksgiving dinner with our four kids at Cinderella's
Castle in Disney World. Years later, the kids still talk about
the wonderful stress free time we had as a family that holiday.
• If you are in an interfaith marriage, rather than saying grace
at dinner, you could have a moment of silence before eating, or
have everyone at the table share something they are thankful for.
• Sometime during the day, take a nap or a break from the
festivities.
• When the two of you are alone together, share the blessings you
each feel in your marriage.
• If the two of you are hosting a Thanksgiving Day dinner, remember
to try and keep balance in your lives.
• Don't strive for perfection in either the way your home looks,
the way your kids behave, or the way the meal turns out.
• Decide together on who will do what when it comes to the
straightening the house, planning, preparation, cooking, and clean up
responsibilities.
• Look for ways to go beyond the inner circle of yourselves and y
our families by taking canned foods to church or a local food bank,
or helping to distribute hot meals on Thanksgiving Day.
• Tell a story from your past Thanksgiving celebrations to each other.

By Sheri & Bob Stritof, Weddings.About.com

Most importantly, enjoy spending the time together, count your
blessings and have a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!