The oven timer says another forty-five minutes. Your flight doesn’t board for an hour. You’re three days out and your mother’s already started brining things. The house smells like butter and thyme, and has for hours. There’s a specific, muffled roar from the football game in the other room, a sound you’ve associated with this specific Thursday since childhood.
And you? You’re just… waiting.
5 Things To Do While Waiting For Your Turkey
Thanksgiving has a particular kind of time dilation—the hurry-up-and-wait of American holidays, where anticipation builds in strange pockets of dead air. You’ve got holiday boredom. This isn’t just about waiting for the turkey to cook; it’s the airport lounge, the quiet kitchen counter before the chaos, the weird Tuesday afternoon when no one is really working. You could scroll. You could refresh your inbox. Or you could lean into the limbo and find something that actually feels like play.
This isn’t wasted time. It’s a pocket. It’s an opportunity for a small, private indulgence. Here are five things to do on Thanksgiving while you wait.
1. Curate Your Digital Escape Hatch
This is rule number one: don’t just doomscroll. That’s a rookie move. That’s letting the algorithm win. You’re looking for a chosen escape.
Find a seat on the “good” sofa—the one no one is allowed to eat on—or lean against the kitchen counter and pull up VegasAces.com on your phone. It’s an instant play casino, which means no download, no friction. Just a clean, fast doorway out.
Lean into the sensory. The clean, crisp green of a blackjack table is the perfect antidote to the floral-patterned chaos of your aunt’s living room. It’s a private world. When I worked in AC, the smartest players were the ones who could build their own bubble of focus, even with the bells and shouts all around them. This is your bubble.
You can play online blackjack for a few hands, just you against the dealer. Or, if you want something more hypnotic, find one of the online slots. The smooth, low-stakes spin of a colorful game is a small, clean thrill that belongs only to you. It’s the 21st-century equivalent of sneaking off to the back porch for a cigarette. It’s one of the best mobile casino games for filling five minutes or fifty.
2. Make One Perfect, Selfish Cocktail
This is the Barefoot Contessa-inspired moment. This is a vital thing to do on Thanksgiving for you. While everyone else is drinking whatever watery light beer or room-temperature boxed wine is on offer, you will take three minutes. For yourself.
This is not a big-batch punch. This is a ritual.
Go to the bar setup. Find a real glass. Describe the sound of the ice hitting that good, heavy glass. The sharp, bright smell of a lemon twist as you run it around the rim. Make a perfect, icy-cold martini. A dark, stirring Boulevardier.
The weight of the glass in your hand is a tiny, physical anchor. This isn’t just a drink; it’s a punctuation mark in a day of run-on sentences. It’s your own private toast to making it through the day.
3. Play “Relative Bingo” (The Psychological Game)
When I bartended in Atlantic City, my job was to read the room. I learned to spot the tells, the patterns, the people just waiting for a lucky streak.
Family is the same, just with higher stakes and worse comps. You’ve seen this show. You know the script. Aunt Sharon will ask about your love life. Your uncle will misremember your job.
So, make it one of your Thanksgiving games. Make a mental bingo card. Or, even better, a real one in your phone’s notes app.
- “Asks if I’m ‘still’ in that apartment.”
- “Brings up 2016.”
- “Mentions gluten.”
- “Casual misogyny.”
- “Gives unsolicited cooking advice.”
The first person to hit “Bingo” (silently, to themselves) wins. What do you win? The smug, private satisfaction of being right. It turns the predictable aggravation into a private, winning game.
4. Find Your Own “Video Poker” Zen
Back in AC, I was always fascinated by the video poker players. They weren’t there for the flash, the noise, or the social scene. They were there for the rhythm. The steady, mathematical, single-player logic. In a building designed for chaos, they had found a pocket of pure order.
You can find this same zen. Find a quiet corner. This is one of the best games to play on my phone during the holidays because it’s not flashy. It’s logical.
Pull up a Video Poker game on your phone at the Vegas Aces online casino. Unlike your family, the rules are clear. A Jack or better pays. A full house is always a good thing. There’s no subjective, emotional drama. Just you and the probability. There’s a clean, quiet satisfaction in holding two and drawing three to a royal. It’s a small, perfect restoration of order in a day defined by anything but.
5. Plot Your Real Escape
What’s the best antidote to a forced-fun holiday? Planning a chosen one.
Use that airport lounge time—when you’re already in transit—to actually plan a trip. This is one of the most productive games to play at airport gates. Open the travel sites. Price out that flight to Lisbon. Look at that weird Airbnb in New Orleans. Or, if you’re feeling lucky, a trip to the real Vegas.
It turns the “waiting” into “planning.” It gives you a concrete, exciting future to look forward to, right when you need it most. You’re not just stuck at gate C-19; you’re one step closer to somewhere else.
The Oven Dings
The timer goes off. The turkey has hit 165°. The “waiting” is over.
But you didn’t just endure it. You played it. You found the small rituals, the private jokes, and the personal wins. You reclaimed the time. You took charge of your holiday boredom and made the “in-between” your own.
And maybe, just maybe, you’re walking to the dining room table a few bucks richer from a lucky streak on the online casino Thanksgiving tables. That’s always a good way to start a meal.
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