Holiday Traditions

I wonder how did Mom and Aunt Diane do it? Thanksgiving with all of us O'Malley's + the Allain's + Memere & Pepere. It is unthinkable how it went off so smoothly every year. I think Martha Stewart would be proud. We always brought our "play clothes" to Aunt Diane's to change into so after we ate, we could go run around the yard. I remember being on our best behavior or else...
I do not ever remember a store being open on Thanksgiving let alone getting up at 4am to go "black Friday" shopping.
Our new tradition is doing Thanksgiving early so friends can come over and still have their own Thanksgiving. The other thing Rick will always do is brine the turkey. We find it comes out so juicy and tender that it is worth doing. We tried the Martha Stewart cheesecloth method this year and forgot that she took the cloth off at the end to brown up the skin. No big deal but Rick really didn't like that method much. He tried Tyler Florence's easy cranberry sauce. 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon stick, cranberries and orange zest & 1/4 cup of orange juice. Cook over medium heat about 15 mins until the cranberries burst. We will never eat canned cranberry sauce again!