Unless you’re the one hosting your friends and family this year, Thanksgiving is a rare opportunity to do nothing but eat, nap and spend time with friends and family you don’t see very often. But as the wine flows freely and the conversations grow louder, the annual holiday party can sometimes become an unwelcome reminder of why you don’t hang out with your extended family and friend circles all that often.
These Chicago companies have tech solutions for keeping the party from going off the rails, as well as for bailing you out if it’s already too late. And if those don’t work, you can always sequester yourself in the kitchen doing dishes.
Making a good first impression with your host is a surefire way to get your Thanksgiving celebration off to a good start, so why not bring a fall flower bouquet to help spruce up the joint? Flowers for Dreams, which donates 25 percent of profits to local charities, hand-delivers flowers throughout most of Chicago. The company doesn't deliver on Thanksgiving Day, but you can make an order for the day prior and bring the flowers to your host. All you have to do from there is just keep a low profile.
Sure, staring at your phone all night is rude, but if the political discussion is about to go off the rails it might still be better than the alternatives. Dose, a Chicago viral media empire, can offer a great respite from any shouting matches that may transpire. Dose’s OMGFacts website also has the added benefit of offering up conversation starters like “did you know a town in New Zealand has a tunnel just for penguins?” and (perhaps more relevant) “did you know there is a free wine fountain in Italy?”
Playing football is a Thanksgiving tradition, but it's also a great way to get some fresh air and get away from the chatter for a while. But even if you can’t muster a big enough group for an actual game of football, Wilson’s Bluetooth-connected ball and accompanying app can take your game of catch to the next level. It’s also a cool way to bond with the kids in your family if you have a hard time coming up with anything better than “how’s school?”
If you're traveling for Thanksgiving by car, toll roads are hard to avoid. And during that peak travel time, waiting in line at the toll booth can add to your travel times significantly (and possibly make you late for dinner). FastToll Illinois can cut down your travel time by tracking which tolls you’ve passed, letting you pay the tolls collectively at the end. It will also help you get home faster if you devide that you urgently need to escape an unsavory situation.
If you're wiped out from Black Friday shopping and sick of turkey leftovers when the weekend sets in, a fresh, healthy meal might be precisely what you need. Radish delivers organic meals in 20 minutes or less to select Chicago neighborhoods. The speedy deliveries are enabled by the company's in-house kitchen, located centrally in River West.
Images via Shutterstock and listed companies.
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