Moms Talk: Slowing Down for Thanksgiving

Blogger Doug Mathews came up with a novel way of dealing with his number-one pet-peeve come the holiday season: team up with AllRecipes.com and create the “Respect the Bird” movement to argue for taking time to enjoy Thanksgiving — instead of using it as a rest-stop for Christmas.

"Thanksgiving," Mathews writes, "is a holiday where everyone used to drop everything to savor good food and good company," and I coundn't agree more. The intensity of “respect the birders” is likely fueled by this year’s even earlier start to Black Friday, which for many retailers is midnight Thanksgiving night. Employees at stores like Target are asking their employer to have a heart and put Black Friday back on Friday morning, so they don’t have to leave their families on Thanksgiving (or take naps before or after dinner so they can stay up all night).

There are many culprits that could have been the last straw, such as the Christmas carols played Halloween day on 105.3FM, or rows of Christmas fare put in place as soon as Halloween goods could be shoved aside to make room.

It’s easy for parents to get caught up in the Christmas hype early. After all, we are champions at organization, being ahead of the game, and staying on top of things. We want Christmas to be perfect and if it’s done early, we can relax later, right?

Perfect used to be scheduling a time to sit for photos with the impossibly long line at the Nordstrom Santa Lane downtown, riding on that carousel in Westlake Park, scheduling an ice skating venture, finding great (no perfect!) photos for the Christmas card and photo calendar gifts, getting tickets to one “dress-up” Christmas performance of some kind, addressing Christmas cards while watching football and recovering from turkey and mashed potatoes--whew--and so on. Now it’s finding a time we can all be together enjoying something we all like—it’s simple and does not include the.

This year my approach to Thanksgiving will reflect the lesson from the “Respect the Birders.” To create a more relaxed Thanksgiving schedule, I’m cooking fewer hot dishes and making some dishes ahead (after all the rolls don’t have to come out of the oven precisely one minute before we sit!). Even better, I’ve thought ahead about what might lead to more family interaction, like a table with a puzzle in progress, and a scrapbooking station with old photos and supplies for a few scrapbook pages. Add a few snacks and some football, and it should be a “perfect” day.