Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My longstanding line about Thanksgiving is, “What’s not to like about a harvest festival?”
Thanksgiving is our most food-oriented holiday. I needn’t tell you it’s also very family-oriented. We all have Thanksgiving memories. Among my fondest are the annual Turkey Bowl touch football games my dad would play with me and my four younger brothers (it worked out to three a side). We all remember the year Dad dived into a spruce tree to catch the game-winning touchdown. He came away with just a few scratches.
I’m not a foodie. I’m the guy who early in my career covered fast food because I liked it and still do. But I also like good turkey gravy and stuffing—simple stuff, not the fancy-pants concoctions with oysters and sausage, etc. I’m not a mashed potato guy, and my family know I am inordinately fond of jellied cranberry sauce straight out of the Ocean Spray can, plopped on a plate with the can rings still visible. I’ll have some this week, I’m sure. But I like the other traditional dishes, too: broccoli and/or green bean casseroles, and pumpkin pies and the like.
Jan and I and our kids will spend Thanksgiving with Jan’s mom and her two sisters and their families. On Friday we’ll head out to see three of my four brothers and their families, where we’ll play a trick card game called Back Alley and eat Giordano’s pizza. It’ll be fun.
Mostly I like Thanksgiving for what it stands for. You’ve often heard me say that we live in the best time, in the best place, in the history of the world. Our current political and geopolitical challenges are very real, and I don’t mean to minimize them. Still, they don’t change just how fortunate we are to live in this time and place.
But because we are so lucky, we need to pass it on. I hope you’ll spend some time or effort this holiday weekend doing good. That can be volunteering at charitable Thanksgiving dinners or considering the charitable giving you plan this year. Personally, I’m very fond of NAFEM’s initiatives to support Feeding America. And as a NAFEM member, I will do my part.
Have a thankful and fun Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading.
And yes. Be well, Do good. Have fun.
Cheers,
Robin
