ia_james is on point. The stall is the meat's ability to drive you crazy and encourage you to have a beer, sit back, and relax.
Re: Ribs and Butts for Thanksgiving, I'd suggest separate cooks, or consider starting the butts early and adding the ribs later. While your mileage may vary, for the average 8 pound butt, I'll start them at 11 pm the night before at 180, a couple ounces of wood and 4 charcoal briquettes, run them all night long, wake up about 7 and crank the smoker up to 225-230, and walk away. I find GENERALLY, that using this method, we're eating around 5 pm. Experience will help, but if I check the smoker at 3:30 or 4 and I'm still only in the high 170's, I'll crank the temp up to 250.
Re: the ribs, I run my ribs for a straight 6 hours. No way to accurately check the temps, so for a meal at 5, 11am would be my "entry" time into the smoker.
On another note, consider a mix of apple and cherry on anything pork. Nice flavor....
And Welcome to the forum!!!
I believe in catch and release fishing. I don't want to EAT 'em all, I just want to GREET 'em all!