Here at Elsie Green, we're like a little family. We love our traditions, like family lunch every day at the shop and having cookies & bookies together every month. It makes us feel connected and fills us back up.
When we break for the holidays, we also have traditions at home to look forward to. Each of us has our own special Thanksgiving traditions with our families and loved ones that we treasure.
Take a scroll through to read each member of Team EG's traditions and plans for this Thanksgiving.
Laurie & JP
In our family, we like to go around the dinner table and share what we're most thankful for. It's a simple tradition, but one that really fills our cups and makes us feel grateful for the life our family has together.
Andie
During normal times, my grandparents come each year to spend Thanksgiving with us. My Grandma Sherry makes me a lemon pie each year, which only my dad and I like. It means so much to me that she makes it by hand just for us.
Kelsey
I always make one of my mom's recipes. Thanksgiving was her Olympics and the only thing that makes me feel better without her there is making her recipes.
Michele
I love a pre-dinner trail run with friends and family if I’m lucky enough to convince them to join me! The sound of fall leaves crunching under foot brings me gratitude.
Sepi
Thanksgiving isn't a huge holiday for us, as our big family holiday is Persian New Year in March. But, each year I make an apple pie for each of our families. We spend early afternoons with my parents and the evening with my husband's parents.
Anna
In addition to Thanksgiving with family, I also have a big dinner with friends. Our tradition is that each person writes down what they are grateful for on a piece of paper. Everyone throws their folded paper into a hat and we go around in a circle, each person pulling out someone else’s paper and one by one we read them aloud and try to guess whose it is.
Terri
One of my favorite traditions is spending Thanksgiving up at our mountain cabin with extended family. The air is crisp, the leaves are turning and sometimes we get an early dusting of snow. We bring everything up to make our special holiday dishes and set a simple fall table. There’s usually some kind of minor disaster (think power outages, forgotten green beans and the pie that someone dropped one year!). It’s usually one big chaotic (but fun) mess and we are all grateful for it.
Alena
Our Thanksgiving traditions spun from moving to San Francisco into a lovely apartment with the tiniest kitchen. Making a meal in there would take some serious logistical planning. We always start the day at Ocean Beach and let the dogs run, and then venture into Chinatown for soup dumplings.
Isabella
My parents have a set of leather photo albums full of pictures of our family throughout the years. For most of the year, they sit on the shelf but Thanksgiving always feels like the right time to pull them out and flick through them. It's one of my favourite traditions because it makes me remember all the moments & people in my life that I am thankful for, past & present.
Sarah
A Thanksgiving tradition that I have always loved is setting the table. I love bringing out the fancy plates and pretty glassware and linens, and then lighting all of the candles and tea lights I can find to create a glow that mimics the way my family makes me feel. I loved when my mom and grandma started to include me in setting the scene, and now my daughter is excited to help carry the tradition on. Moments like these make me feel closer to my mom and grandma, even though they are gone.
Joey
I love to spend the day with my sister and my niece and nephew on their property in the country. My pops likes to cook everything and my mom and I usually find an old movie to watch in the evening, and there's usually a lot of dogs around to sneak leftovers to.