The Christmas season, of course, starts the day after Thanksgiving, with one of the busiest shopping days of the year. People will flood retail stores with the lure of special deals and early bird specials. The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, as for many retailers, it’s the day they finally start making a profit. Deb Stone is the director of marketing for the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester. This will be her 17th holiday season at the mall. She talks about how friendly the customers are, and that there is hope for a decent, though not fantastic, shopping year for retailers.

Suzanne Delle was close to gushing while talking about Lauren Kennedy coming to New Hampshire. Through connections from a former Yellow Taxi Productions board member, Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown is bringing his band, The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, to Derry for a benefit concert for the professional Nashua theater company.

When you’re a professional chef, holidays present a particular problem — cooking for a living is grueling, and a day when your restaurant is actually closed is a blessing to many chefs, but do you want to be tethered to the stove at home?

My favorite holiday of them all is upon us. It is my favorite because the holiday starts the long weekend which, unlike, say Christmas, where you’re back to work the next day, gives you time to just chill for a few days after it’s done. In my “when I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible” days it was always the best college vacation. Because it was the first time I’d been home since August and it was fun (although spring break in Florida was pretty good too). It’s also the last of the fall weather. There’s football through the day starting with local games played on the home front, the actual feast and the idea of giving thanks for what we’re lucky enough to have. Something we all are best served by remembering more than just this weekend. .

At this time of year, we look back to the early days of American colonial life, when the Pilgrims first crossed the Atlantic Ocean looking for India, instead ending up marrying Pocahontas and founding the Mormon church in Williamsburg.

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