Friday Fun: Our Friday Evening Traditions

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

📆 Today's the day! Who's ready for another round of Friday Fun?

I know we've had so much FUN on the Community lately that it's possible we've had too much fun? Nah! I'm just kidding, as Tigger would say you can never have too much Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun... and before you ask, yes I'm a big fan of Winnie the Pooh, just ask my dog Eeyore 🤣

What's up with Friday, it's...

• The "day of Frig"
• The day of the week before Saturday and following Thursday (in case you were unsure 😂)
• The fifth and final day of the working week 
• And the day of the week, research shows, people are at their happiest 

And I've got to admit that "Friday Feeling" is definitely there for me and my family, so much so we have our own weekly celebration to welcome in the Friday evening. Once the laptop is down, the loungewear is on, it's time for own little Holton tradition (soon to be revealed)!

So, whether you're a Friyay-er or a TGIF-er, I'd love to know if:

1. You share a Friday evening Tradition / Ritual / Celebration with friends or family alike?
2. It has its own origin story?
3. It's survived the test of time?

My Tradition: It's something we all know and I definitely love... Pizza and Wine 🍕 🍷

It may sound simple but Friday night is officially known as "Pizza and Wine Night" in our household and it's rarely missed, even if we're on holiday!

This little ritual of ours was probably started around the time I was 12 or 13 (you're trying to guess my age now right?), well fast forward to present day (I'm 27 going on 28) and it's still our own slice of pepperoni heaven after a long week at work. 

The Origin: It all started because my Dad worked away Monday to Friday, getting home just in time for dinner on a Friday night. This plus, my Mum also working all week and looking after the house, meant we wanted something quick, easy and of course tasty so we could spend most of our time catching up and sharing the week's stories. And the rest is history, whether we're near or far from each other we still enjoy a pizza and a glass of wine on a Friday. 

I'm glad you asked J-Law... in roughly 18 hours it'll be in my very happy belly, the countdown is most definitely on!

Happy Friday Folks, I'll be raising a glass and a slice to all who join my Friday Fun Challenge 🥳 🍕🍷

[Pramodh M]

[Pramodh M]

Groovy!!

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

@Pramodh M I can't tell you how much I enjoy Tom and Jerry 😄  tha gif just brings a smile to my face! 

So tell us, do you do anything to welcome in the weekend?

[Pramodh M]

Enjoying free time with animated shows 😃 Sometimes novels!!

It was fun when watching We Bare Bears 😄

[Jimmy Seddon]

Great topic and question @Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_!

I will start by saying I think I fit much more in the Fri-YAY category!

From what I remember:

• Growing up, Fridays were movie & popcorn night (Though I was older than my kids are now, so that one may have to come back)!
• In high school, since it wasn't a school night I was always up late playing games online with my friends (that one still happens from time to time, but as we all have other things going on now it's not consistently every Friday).
• My first job coming out of college was in customer support for a software company.  Regular business hours were Mon. - Fri. 8am - 8pm.  As many of us were single and most of us lived within walking distance from the office, there were often times where we would play trashcan hockey (yes I'm Canadian) with a duct tap puck and mini sticks until the last support reps were done their shift then hit the local pub.

Now that, I'm married with two small children and COVID is still an issue where I live, we don't actually have any long standing traditions for Friday specifically.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Yay to the Friday 🥳  I've got to say Jimmy, trashcan hockey sounds awesome! The pubs not half bad either! That's such a cool and unique tradition... though I don't think I could get away with it here, I'd definitely get some odd looks from neighbours 😂

[Craig Castle-Mead]

Our current Friday evenings usually consist of a dusk drive through the hinterland/mountains - windows down, music up. It's a good covid safe way to unwind after a week sitting in a home office! This is a significant change from when a Friday evening was ordering take away and sitting at home cause we'd been in offices all week.

CCM

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

That sounds absolutely lovely 😍  definitely a great way to clear away the work week angst and get weekend ready!

[Andy Gladstone]

In Judaism, Friday night has great significance as the start of the Sabbath. While there are so many religious customs I could list, I'd prefer to share something more personal.

One of the great aspects of Sabbath is disconnecting. My family and I are running around all week - work, school, activities - but that all comes to an abrupt stop on Friday night. After dinner we all retire to the couches and chairs in the living room, pull out books, magazines and board games and finally get to enjoy each other's company. My wife and I get to see how our children have matured and are growing up (too fast!) and the conversations are usually a spectrum of hilarious to existential, and provide us with family time we would never have otherwise.

Thanks for allowing me to appreciate these moments more by thinking about them during the week @Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_! 

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

That's a wonderful way to spend a Friday night 😊  I love how each tradition is a little different but at the base of it all is being able to spend some quality time with our family and/or friends and being able to disconnect in various ways (something I know I don't do enough even with New Year resolutions!)

Thank you so much for sharing Andy, I hope you have a lovely evening with the family 💙

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

@Andy Gladstone you're seriously fulfilling my love for Winnie the Pooh these last 24 hours!!

[Monique vdB]

@Andy Gladstone I absolutely love this, such a beautiful tradition! We haven't been to a Shabbos dinner in a long time (blah blah pandemic blah blah) but they are always so meaningful. 

[Andy Gladstone]

@Monique vdB well, if your ever in NYC (if we ever travel anywhere again...) you have an open invitation!

[Monique vdB]

@Andy Gladstone our next team offsite will likely be in NYC! I don't know when it will happen but I'll bring the Manischewitz.  😉

[Taranjeet Singh]

That's a great Friday Fun post, @Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_ and I am loving reading the Friday evening traditions of others.

My family and I do not have any such historic Friday evening tradition as such, but for sure, my family and I are in the happiest, celebrating, and relaxing mood on a Friday evening and always try to find out some ways to spend this evening together in a fun way often accompanied with some good food ordered from outside.

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Look food. From the outside. Ooooooooooooh. - Exactly where my brain went when I read food ordered from outside 😂  sorry Taranjeet, I couldn't help myself!

Well if you ask me that sounds like a great Friday evening, is there a family preference for food or is it anyone's choice when the evening arrives?

[Taranjeet Singh]

Well, since we all kind of have different food preferences, we normally tend to order different food items for the family members based on their choice. But when it comes to having a craving for a Pizza on a Friday, we all agree on the same food item. But instead of wine (I am not a wine person, but would like to explore more if someone could guide me on this...), I usually prefer Scotch, Irish Whiskey or simply a beer :-)

[Andy Gladstone]

[Linda Milne_Togetha Group_]

Do you suppose that beer was drunk through a straw - the pan and glasses didn't budge.... 🤔

[Vero Rivas]

Hi @Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_ 

   I love this theme and it has made me remember that in my house there is the tradition of every night, the potato omelette and then a good family movie lying on the sofa, in addition to having dinner in peace, without rushing because the next day there is no to get up early

   Happy friday night everyone

Cheers

[Linda Milne_Togetha Group_]

mmmmm potato omelette

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

There's no better formula... family, food, peace and quiet and of course the lie in 🤩  It's always a great feeling when you don't have to get up early the next day, makes Friday evenings even sweeter! 

That's the perfect gif @Linda Milne_Togetha Group_ I was doing exactly that 😅

[Fun Man Andy]

Hmmm... no real true traditions here in this household for Fridays...!
We love movie nights on the weekends though
Thanks to Disney+ we are going through all the classics with the kids!

And in terms of day time... Fridays are defintiely more an admin day and when I can commit a large chunk of time to planning Atlassian Community Events!!!

[Andy Gladstone]

@Fun Man Andy that is an AMAZING idea. Disney Classics are great for the whole family - even the big kids that would say they don't want to watch would likely have their hands deep in the popcorn bowl!

I think I'm going to steal this idea. Maybe make a Trello Board to keep track of them and let the family vote on which one we screen (just not on Friday nights!).

[Fun Man Andy]

Wow.. you took an amazing idea and DOUBLED it... @Andy Gladstone !!!!

Love the idea of a Trello for organizing that...! I think you're onto something there. Potential for an unbelievably amazing template.

One might even say it would be:

[Jimmy Seddon]

Nice!  Disney+ has so much great content.  Both new and old.

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Disney films are a great Friday night watch 😍  you can never be too old for that! What Classic was up this week?

Also, just have to say the combination and Trello and Disney+ can only go one way... to infinity and beyond!! I absolutely love this idea @Andy Gladstone 🙌

[Fun Man Andy]

Actually, this weekend we ditched the classics and went for brand new.... but we can't talk about that, because:

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT BRUUUUNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

🤐🤫😂

[Monique vdB]

For years before we had our daughter, my husband and I would order our favorite pepperoni and pineapple pizza from a local pizzeria, watch Mad Men, and drink Belgian beer.  

Now we do family movie night or games night (we let the kiddo pick) and order takeout.  

[Jimmy Seddon]

YES!!! Pineapple!

[Linda Milne_Togetha Group_]

Of course, pineapple!!!!

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Yay another one for the pineapple on pizza club 🥳  It gets a lot of bad press but I think it's great, I always get excited for when we order a pizza in and I build it up from scratch! 

That sounds truly lovely @Monique vdB, I hope you had a great evening 😊

[Fun Man Andy]

Buongiorno: qual è il cazzo?!! Descendant of an Italian here to inform y'all, that, whilst people are entitled to their own opinions and tastes, you are all wrong.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZML1oBRp2/ la madonna!

🇮🇹🍕🍍⛔️

(You MUST follow @lionfiledmusic: their pro-Italy-anti-the-world's-views-of-Italy-propaganda is Next leBel!!)

[Dave Liao]

@Monique vdB - I know someone who had pineapple pizza tonight - yes, on a Friday!

I'm covering their eyes to protect their identity FYI

[Monique vdB]

@Dave Liao what a mysterious person! He has excellent taste, whoever he is. 😉

[Fun Man Andy]

For Dave and all the other Pineapple Pizza loving peeps out there... it is "trash". Not my words; I quoted Italians:

https://www.facebook.com/lionfieldmusic/videos/ordering-pineapple-pizza-in-italy/481330279675144/

[Brant Schroeder]

We just spend time as a family.  Dinner, movie, attending a sporting game, etc.  

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Sounds pretty perfect to me, that's what it's all about 😄

[John Funk]

Growing up for me, it was high school football on Friday nights. And rekindled again when one of my boys ended up playing. Outside of that, it's usually just a time to relax from the week and watch a movie or something else mindless. 

[Andy Gladstone]

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

That's so sweet to hear the tradition has almost been passed down to your kids 💙  on top of that Friday feeling a bet you get a few proud Dad moments that make it even greater!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Our Friday nights are very variable, heavily influenced by our own lives before we met, and the patterns have changed.

Chrissy had a much more modern English upbringing than I did, she grew up in a family where Friday night was the end of the working week for both school-kids and her mother, and mostly her dad too.

I, however, grew up in a more traditional pattern which meant Friday was still a school night, as we went to school on Saturday, and then I went on to get a career that's absolutely not time predictable on top of that.  My family tradition was that Dad would get a take-away for Saturday lunch when I got home from school, usually hitting up a chippy.

Chrissy works hard during the week and shuts down for a break very hard.  I smear my work across all of the time I have and don't really shut down over a "normal" weekend.  So our Fridays have four regular patterns:

• I cook with wine (sometimes it goes in the food) while Chrissy has an end-of-week-totally-exhausted nap or relaxation time with the cats
• Chrissy cooks a pizza or Chinese dish and we both relax.  (By "cooks", I mean "orders food for delivery")
• I work, she cooks for herself
• We go out to meet friends for drinkies in a place we can order food from.

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

It's like tradition roulette... the question is where did the ball land this week?

😂  tradition 1 tickled me, mainly because I cook with wine too though most times it seems to evaporate before it makes it into the food! Whether it was T1, T2, T3 or T4 (feeling more like Thunderbirds than traditions at this point!) I hope you had a great Friday night!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Pizza last week :-)    This week, we may be out for one of our friends celebrating finalising getting her new house!  If not, then it will probably be me setting fire to a salad again...

[Dave Liao]

🍻 My Fridays usually involve visiting my local bars (anything within a 30-minute commute!).

🔍 Lately, Fridays also involve asking myself why I have so many browser tabs open.

I review each tab, figure if there's a Next Action, store that on my to-do list, then close the tab.

[Jimmy Seddon]

LOL! I know people who are like this, somehow I've never fallen into this trap.

[Linda Milne_Togetha Group_]

Groooaaaannn. Not something I would ever consider for a precious Friday night - the browser tabs that is. I avoid it as much as possible even!

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Which comes first the bar or the browsers because it could be an interesting mix if it's after a 🍺  or two. Though if I did browser tabs first I think I would need a drink after that... I have way too many but I've got to admit they are satisfying to close when you can do a lot of them in one go 😅

[Fun Man Andy]

@Dave Liao - buddy, you need Trello and the Chrome Extension to turn open tabs into cards.

Aaaiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave Liao]

@Fun Man Andy - WAIT, THAT'S A THING?

[Fun Man Andy]

@Dave Liao - yes... 💯💫👌

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/add-to-trello/engmocckoohpopiacajolojeobefbcec

Trello is the BEST...! If you can't use Trello itself, use a PUp. If you can't use a PUp, use a Chrome extension. And if the Chrome extension doesn't exist, go build it yourself 😅

PS: despite the weird looking URL, it is NOT click-bait to a video of me dancing in my Speedos. That stuff doesn't need URLs.. it just gets embedded straight into Community comments.... 😎

[Jack Brickey]

Now that I am an empty-nester I don't really have a Friday night ritual. When I was growing up I remember going out to the local fish camp at the nearby lake. Friday Night Fish Night! I loved it and cherish the memories. With my kids it would usually be Tex-mex night with margaritas, but not for the kids. 😆

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Those are awesome traditions @Jack Brickey (and not just for the margaritas!) 😋

Fun Fact, in many places across the world Friday night has been the traditional night to eat fish. 

[Dana M_ Jansen]

Friday is "Date Night" for my husband and I.  We've been doing it for years - even before we became empty-nesters.  All my friends (esp. my girl friends) know - Don't ask Dana to go out for girl's night on Friday night - cause that's Date Night (and yes the capitals are on purpose :D)

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

I love that 💙  It shows just how much of a tradition it is when even the girls know not to throw other plans into the mix.

Here's to your Friday Date Night 🥂

[Linda Milne_Togetha Group_]

Nice topic! Friday nights are my fave time of the week. Similar to @Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_  we do a "easy food" and beer thing, and like @Dana M_ Jansen  its a bit of a date night thing. This week it was hot dogs, often its chips (as in hot and baked, some kind of dipping sauce, such as curry sauce), and some times even pizza (and as previously discussed, MUST have pineapple XD, and is homemade). We watch a bit of teev, and breath a sigh of relief that it is the end of the week... wondering how its the end of another week already.

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

"wondering how its the end of another week already" - that's a phrase so often used in our Friday evenings, but seriously how do they go by so quickly?!

You can't get much better than that @Linda Milne_Togetha Group_, it's really lovely to see little parts of each tradition sneak into each and every one of ours! A belated happy Friday Linda 🥳

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

As promised, we raised a glass (not quite the slice, sorry!) to you all and from my family to yours Happy Friday Night Tradition Night 🥳 🍕🍷

@Pramodh M @Jimmy Seddon @Craig Castle-Mead @Andy Gladstone @Taranjeet Singh @Vero Rivas @Fun Man Andy @Monique vdB @Brant Schroeder @John Funk @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- @Dave Liao @Jack Brickey @Dana M_ Jansen @Linda Milne_Togetha Group_ Thanks for making my Friday Fun session fun 🤩

And Just Because it's Friday and you guys shared some awesome traditions to boot, I couldn't help but throw a little Kudos your way 😁

[Jimmy Seddon]

I hope it was as tasty as it looks @Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_!

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Oh it really was and there were more slices to follow 😋

[Dave Liao]

Pizza party! ❤️

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

[Taranjeet Singh]

Love this! The pizza looks good.

[Monique vdB]

@Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_ I don't see any pineapple on the pizza but I love this picture anyway! 😊

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Unfortunately not this week @Monique vdB, it was a bit of a majority vote type situation. I made up for it though I made sure the above gif has pineapple on the pizza instead 😅

[Dave Liao]

Ooh, now I know what to get for lunch tomorrow...

[Fun Man Andy]

SALUTI ! ! !

And not a Pineapple to be found in the Holton household. The Ancestors are appeased 😂🇮🇹👏

(Although that GIF... 🙃)

[Svenja Lorenzen]

@Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_ No Friday tradition here but this actually makes me want to change it! 😍

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

@Svenja Lorenzen You could make a mega Friday tradition if you combine an element from everyone 😅

[Fabian Lim]

I don't have any Friday traditions, but it was fun to read all the posts.

[Marjorie]

I am a FRI-YAYer....

1. Growing up we watched "Make me Laugh" and "Soap" with my mom and sisters. We had popcorn and crawled into mom and dad's bed and watched.  We mostly laughed at my sister Cheri who has a very infectious laugh.  
2. My dad worked nights and this is how it helped mom take care of 3 young girls.
3. Now that we are adults, we have our own families. It did not survive on Fridays, we ended up having Movie Night when my kids were at home.  Once a week on person picked the video we would watch, plan the dinner and we would have a night in as a family.

[Brittany Joiner]

First of all, stellar gif!

Secondly, i honestly vary every Friday 😂 depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm still like in a work zone and wanna knock out some side project stuff. And sometimes i just wanna completely avoid work and play video games and/or watch tv with my partner!

[Kristin Lyons]

I don't have any Friday night traditions, but I guess it'd be nice to start one!  In the past I've done "junk food night" with my wife. :D

[Andy Gladstone]

That's basically every night for me. ;-)