Traditional Thanksgiving Ham?

So we went to J's family's house for Thanksgiving. I, because I was raised properly, showed up with a French silk pie and offered to help his mom in the kitchen. His dad handed me 2 cans of green beans and the biggest can of cream of mushroom soup I've ever seen and asked me to make the green bean casserole. I have no idea how to make green bean casserole. I don't even like green bean casserole. Then we discovered that they had decided to make ham. We're still not quite sure why. It's not a family tradition or anything.

So we had a Thanksgiving without a turkey, but with plenty of family--three kids who, at one point as they were beating the tar out of J, seemed like 30 kids. Holidays are kind of a rough time, since my family live so far away. Last year, I couldn't get enough time off work to go visit my family; this year, I don't have a job and can't afford to go visit my family. It's kind of special for me to be able to spend the day with J's family, so the thing I am most thankful for this year is J, for sharing his family with me since I couldn't be with my own.

I did follow it up with my usual day-after-Thanksgiving tradition: not leaving the house. I did not get up before any sane hour to go shopping. I did not fight other people for free gifts at Express (I worked there one holiday season, and there was a legitimate fistfight over the last free red sequined clutch--Detroit is a TOUGH city!). We did end up going to Microcenter after dinner to return the Xbox 360 J bought to replace the one that was stolen, and then re-purchased it to get a free $50 gift card.

I have to say, I think Christmas shopping is probably my least favorite thing in the world to do. I hate the mall during the holiday. There's just too many people, and most of them are so focused on getting whatever they're after that they pay absolutely no attention to the people around them. I don't like big crowds, and I like them even less when they're trying to save $4 on a jingle ball sweater. And it's cold outside, so I have to wear a jacket, but it's hot inside. So I'm overheated, overcrowded and overannoyed. I am the person for whom Internet shopping was invented.