Honestly, Thanksgiving is one of my least favorite holidays. I love the idea behind it, and can fully support being thankful for all of the wonderful things in my life… but I think that is something that we should remember daily, not just remember because there is a meal connected to it.

And about the meal… I’d rather have Japanese… A little sushi and some hibachi. Steak, shrimp, fried rice and a couple of tuna rolls with wasabi… Or maybe a juicy steak… Southwestern Pasta with chicken?

Turkey, dressing, cranberry (canberry?) sauce, pecan pie, pumpkin pie… I don’t care. In fact, one of the best Thanksgivings ever for me involved pizza.

A few guys I worked with that were single, or single for the weekend with family out of town, all got together and ordered pizza. We watched a few movies, played some video games and just hung out. For that day, we were family. We cracked jokes about ourselves and our spousal equivalents…

Another of my best Thanksgivings was with my grandmother after she got to the point of not wanting to cook. We got a big bucket from the Colonel the day before and just heated everything up. Prep took about 20 minutes and clean-up about 5. The rest oft he time was about the family. We mostly just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. My grandmother told embarrassing stories about ancestors…

The point is…

This isn’t a day about food… That is just a distraction. It isn’t even a day about “thanks”… we should do that every day. It is a day about being with people we care about and enjoying the time we have together.

We actually celebrated twice this year.  This afternoon will be with my wife’s family, and earlier in the week we met up with my mother and step-father in Myrtle Beach, SC.  There was a lot of food a couple of days ago, and there will be a lot of food later today, but when it is all said and don, we will get together, play, laugh and “be together”…

Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t stress about the bird. If it caught fire and smoked everyone out of the house, it would make a great story in a few years…