Let's talk about Thanksgiving traditions. How does the holiday go down with your family? What are the traditions that make the day special? And what do you do with the kids?

How do you avoid pitfalls and family headaches that could potentially derail a celebration?

Finally, what kind of spread do you put out? And does dad help out with the preparations? Are they extensive? Or do you have a laid back event?

I hope everybody had a great T-giving 2009. I dubbed ours Thanksgivathon 2009 -- we had the entire extended family with us this holiday. An invasion of in-laws from the Northeast. Total of 16 for T-giving feast, but that was only the centerpiece of a week long buffet of events.

We're still working on the tradition part of our family holiday schedule. We invited a dear friend over for dinner on Tuesday and had an epic dinner of smoked turkey, smoked chicken, pastrami (smoked, pickled or corned brisket) and garlic mashed potatoes. Then the remains were picked for preservation and the rest went into a stock pot for what may become a tradition of stocking the poultry. What wasn't Foodsaved and frozen was canned on Thanksgiving. Actual Thanksgiving activities included a horrible dinner at my wife's sister's and an equally disgusting meal at her father's on Friday. Fish you serve raw. Potatoes, not so much. It wouldn't have been so bad if either place offered interesting conversation or good play pals for Duncan. Teaching a toddler to dodge what his cousin is throwing at him isn't a good learning experience. Then Friday night I made up for the food by making a proper pan of mash to go with a turkey stew with dumplings.

We won't have a baby due next year, so we'll probably try to be out of town for as much of the holiday as possible. Since we've now had contact with my parents for a year, we'll probably join my family for Thanksgiving next year. That will be better for everyone in our house.

But it also looks like I'll be setting up the lights at the city's Botanical Conservatory for the unveiling on Thanksgiving Eve. The Night of Lights celebration downtown is a pretty big deal with thousands of people gathering. So that's probably part of the greater tradition now, too.

16? Ha. 31 at our gathering! www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2883808&a...bba&id=788208157

The tradition is... we go to HER in-laws for Thanksgiving and spend at least one extra day with "Oma & Opa." We were the only ones who stayed an extra day this year. So it was a nice lazy black friday with the G-parents and TheBoy.

I just hate spending almost the entire time off away from the home... I have too many unfinished projects that I continue to neglect...

My sister has a flight this afternoon at 4:30. That will be the official closing ceremonies for Thanksgivathon 2009. Full update on the way.