What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

It’s not just a long weekend. It’s much more – close to my soul.

Thanksgiving, for me, is something else entirely — a four-day stretch of real time, where I get to pause, exhale, and gently reset. It’s a quiet, breezy, wide-windowed chapter in the middle of a fast-moving year. A perfect blend of weather, memory, routine, and presence. Here’s what it means in my world.

1. Four Days of Uninterrupted Pause

What I Feel:

There’s something almost sacred about four days in a row where no one expects anything — not socially, not professionally. No replies to draft, no screens to refresh. The world collectively exhales, and I let myself do the same.

What I Do:

• I don’t overplan. I just allow my body and mind to unfold into rest and rhythm.
• I let each morning decide what it wants to be — maybe a slow coffee, maybe a garden walk, maybe just sitting beside Odin in stillness.

2. The Cool Breeze of NCR in Late November

What I Love:

The air shifts — finally.
There’s a coolness in the mornings, a clarity to the sky, and that signature scent of leaves meeting the earth again. I keep the windows open. I switch to longer walks. I brew stronger coffee. The weather itself gives me permission to stay outside longer and think slower.

What Changes:

• Light falls at new angles — perfect for rearranging furniture or shooting home photos.
• I set up an open corner with my art supplies or books, and it instantly becomes a new ritual space.

3. A Season for Planting (Literally)

What I Do:

Thanksgiving weekend is my personal planting season — new trees, new roots, new rituals.
The soil is just right, the air is kind, and it’s a perfect time to invest in slow growth. I usually spend an entire morning re-potting, mulching, or preparing soil for new greens. It’s my favorite way of manifesting renewal physically.

Rarely Noted:

• I start an indoor garden sketchbook — noting sun angles, shelf ideas, and new corners to green.
• I pick out plant-friendly treats for Odin — herbs he can sniff, grass patches to roll in, textures he enjoys brushing against.

4. A Space to Begin Something New

What It Means:

Thanksgiving isn’t just a pause — it’s a quiet beginning.
I use this time to test, explore, and fumble my way into new hobbies or side projects that excite me. No pressure. No deadlines. Just open time and soft curiosity.

My Go-To Experiments:

• Hand-drawn mini zines and lifestyle moodboards
• Designing a cozy reading corner or reworking an old blog series
• Learning a new brewing technique for coffee (this year: Japanese iced drip and oat milk foam variations)
• Exploring forgotten folders of interior design snapshots or shelf styling notes
• Doodling visual blog layouts or testing a new content format

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5. The Coffee Experiments Begin

Why It’s Special:

There’s something about cool, still mornings, and lazy afternoons that make coffee-brewing feel poetic. Over these four days, I take my time — adjusting grind size, water temperature, and brew method — until each cup feels like it was made just for that moment.

What I Try:

• Chemex mornings with cardamom and orange zest
• Aeropress trials with dark roast Tanzanian beans
• Oat milk microfoam experiments for cinnamon lattes
• Quiet pour-over evenings, paired with long reads

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6. Blogging, Reading, and Designing — The Soulwork

What I Dive Into:

Thanksgiving gives me the space to write from a quieter place — not for performance or deadlines, but because I want to. I re-read old pieces, outline new ones, or just freewrite in my journal.

Books come back into my life, too — the ones I’ve dog-eared but haven’t finished, or the new ones waiting in my stack. I light a candle, brew a cup, and disappear into the page.

Design-wise, I revisit old sketches, Pinterest saves, and floor plan ideas that I hadn’t had time to explore. Thanksgiving is my time to think in shapes, tones, textures, and shadows again.

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7. Odin’s Homecoming Anniversary

Why It’s Everything:

More than anything else, Thanksgiving holds space for our most tender ritual — Odin’s Homecoming Day.

It’s the anniversary of the day Odin adopted us as his parents. And every year, we mark it quietly — with memory, celebration, and soft spoiling.

What We Do:

• I make him his favorite treats — with apples, bananas, mix of berries, a touch of yogurt, and honey, or something savory with his favourite vegetables and fish items.

• We take him for long drives and car ride to his favorite parks snd pet-friendly market places, where he sniffs everything like it’s new and meet people like his friends.

• We revisit photos and videos from our first week together — the confusion, the cuddles, the learning curve
• We sit together more, walk slower, and I whisper thanks for the joy he brings into every inch of our home

What It Teaches Me:

That love is routine. That family is quiet presence.

That the best holidays are the ones where you sit still with the life you’ve built — and feel full.

Final Thought: The Ritual of Return

Thanksgiving is not about tradition. It’s about return.

To peace. To rhythm. To memory. To a gentler pace. It’s when the year lets go, and I can, too — in the company of cool air, warm light, earthy coffee, paper pages, growing plants, and the paws of the dog who changed everything.

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More from Odin’s Wisdom

If you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into my world, I invite you to explore more thoughts, discoveries, and ideas I’ve shared on Odin’s Wisdom.

It’s where I gather what inspires me — from mindful living and soul-searching rituals to slowing down, designing with intention, and reconnecting the dots we often miss in a fast-paced life. Every post is a pause, a perspective, a personal journey into living with more presence and meaning.

Visit Odin’s Wisdom, explore the categories, follow my blog — and if something speaks to you, like, share, comment, reblog, or post it on your social channels.

I’d love to hear from you — share your thoughts, ideas, or what you’d love to find next on the blog!