1. One Thanksgiving tradition I have is to always use my grandmother Hazel Coleman Adams’ turkey stuffing recipe. Everyone loves it and there is rarely much left over after the meal. Her secret ingredient was Bell’s Seasoning.

2. Black Friday is a day when I avoid all stores. Not so when I was younger. When we still lived in California, I used to love shopping at the Cabazon Outlets. The outlets opened at midnight of Thanksgiving night. They had some terrific Black Friday deals, but even then, I hated to fight with the parking and big crowds.  I solved that problem by getting up at 2:00 a.m., driving the 50 miles out to the outlets, getting a prime parking place because there were very few other nuts there at that hour, completing my shopping by 7:00 a.m. headed back home just as the parking lot was beginning to fill up.

3. The best part of Thanksgiving Day varies for me. When my sister-in-law hosts and we visit, it’s the  time spent with the family. When it’s my turn to cook, as it is this year, the very best part of the day is when I put the last of the clean dishes away!

4. One Thanksgiving, back in the 1980s, I had prepared an elaborate dinner menu with lots of extra side dishes (not that we needed them). I had everything under control and on schedule. It wasn’t until I was putting everything on the table when I realized I had forgotten one important item – a favorite in our family – the mashed potatoes! No one went hungry, but we all missed the mashed potatoes and gravy with our turkey!

Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge and thanks to Suzanne McClendon for creating this meme.