Arriving late for Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving dinner can cause a significant negative start to an expected and tense day in equal parts, but the truth is that it happens very frequently. Bringing together the dispersed family throughout the country translates into almost 50 millions trips in just two days. Traffic jams, flight delays and cancellations are very common and taking them into account can help us prepare this party better.
Let your family know when you are arriving
To avoid the stress of trying to control something that is out of control, it is best to take the most of technology and share the location with the family on a private map temporarily, so they can see our path, if we are late and if we are fine during or journey.
Sharing the location in real time temporarily makes it possible to forget the noisy calls or endless conversations with the family asking what’s taking so long. It will also save you from taking risks driving and picking up the phone and having a fine.
Some apps already have this feature, and among them Wave Let’s Meet App stands out as a free app to share the live location privately between two or more people. Everyone could spot each other on the map and be ready for their arrival. Best of all, it has a navigation GPS to go to your destination and a direct access to call an Uber. Wave also counts with a complete chat with audios. It is free and available for iOS and Android.
Driving? Know when to stop
On the road, you will feel helpful to know when you have the nearest petrol station or restaurant to visit, since like you there are many others that will leave empty fuel stocks throughout the country. It never hurts to know where to stop in case of emergency. Among all the apps to choose your stop over our route, Roadtrippers informs you about the nearer stops along the way, good to visit, to relax or to sleep. It is available for free for iOS and Android.
Recipes for Thanksgiving
Suppose you don’t cook the turkey but your family has asked you to bring a plate of food and, apart from knowing how to boil some spaghetti or unfreeze a meatloaf, you have no idea where to start. First of all we advise against trying some haute cuisine because if it is your first time it will not go out as you wish. To see simple recipes and still impress your family, look at the Big Oven application, where you will see easy recipes with the list of ingredients separately to facilitate your way to the supermarket.
Plan the menu for Thanksgiving
You may be afraid that your little brother, who also does not stand out for his culinary skills, has chosen the same dish as you. Well, don´t be. Before thinking again about cooking extravagant dishes, open the Cookpad application and share with others the recipe you are going to make. They can also share their plates and thus avoid repeating the cranberry sauce that only your grandmother will enjoy. Pepperplate application has a complete menu to plan the cooking times of all your dishes, make private and shared lists, lists of ingredients and tasks to excel in your planning and make it easier.
Share old memories
To smooth any thorny conversation you can always show a bunch of old pictures using the app Pic Collage application, a free app for iOS. It makes photo presentations, enlarge them, share and even project them on the TV screen. It also has the possibility to edit the pictures, ad stickers and fonts to explode your creativity. Everyone likes to remember with nostalgia some key moments and go back in time.
It is time to disconnect from the daily routine, work and worries and return to the family home to celebrate with the most loved ones a few days of tranquility, to catch up with the latest neighborhood gossip and above all, to savor a delicious homemade food. Enjoy it!
Pablo Clemente Pérez 