First Thanksgiving with Spouse: Creating Your Own Traditions

I never thought about how fun it would be to celebrate first holidays together when I got married. My husband and I dated for years before we got married, but when we were living in our own house together as a married couple, I realized that we were starting with a clean slate in creating our own traditions. We've had so much fun in creating our own set of things to celebrate from year to year, and Thanksgiving is no different.

Truth be told, my husband has spent many a Thanksgiving at the Lions game. We have however created our own traditions for when he is actually home. For us we like to really enjoy every moment of the day when it's a holiday or bonus day off together. I highly recommend starting the day with a big breakfast, plenty of good coffee, and perhaps a mimosa or Bloody Mary if the mood strikes you. I know a lot of couples that start the day this way and it sets the tone for a ton of fun. We used to be like a lot of couples and go out the night before for the "biggest bar night of the year", but as we've gotten older and have now welcomed a little one, this is not such a priority anymore.

When trying to figure out your own traditions, who you are spending the day with is a big part of it. For us, we only ever celebrate with my family and it's at one central location. That makes life easier! I will admit that my friends that have to see both sides of the family or in some cases as many as four different families that day or throughout the holiday weekend don't have time for much else. For us, we put on the Thanksgiving Day parades (both local and national) and enjoy our coffee or morning cocktail. I do whatever last minute prep work needs to be done and then we chill out and relax for a bit before the family festivities. We take our time and leisurely approach the day--you don't get to do that often in such a busy society.

We either host or head over to one of my sister's house for a day of eating, laughing, games, and movies. We enjoy the rest of the day with family and the traditions that we've set. There's of course some football in the mix, otherwise the day wouldn't be complete for my husband.

We carry on the traditions into the next day, whereby my husband sleeps in and I get up at the crack of dawn to hit all of the Black Friday sales. Yes, I even managed to do this last year when I was eight months pregnant. A girl needs to find her sale items! When I get home from that tradition, we spend the rest of the day putting up our Christmas trees and holiday decorations. This not only gets us prepared, but we have a ton of fun doing this to put us in the holiday mood. It's our little tradition that we've carried on for years and we look forward to it every year!

Now we have a seven month old and of course some of these traditions will be modified a bit. I get excited to think though that we'll be able to start new traditions as a family. If it's your first Thanksgiving together, think of what's important to you as a couple and make time for it. Creating traditions is part of the fun as a newly married couple and you will be sure to look forward to them each and every year!