Thanksgiving: I’m doing it wrong?
I didn’t eat a single bite of turkey today, nor did I watch any football. Does that make me a bad American?
(For the record, I would love to have seen some Thanksgiving football, but I was helping my parents put Christmas decorations up in their home, and we normally have about twice the number of helpers we had today. So I didn’t have a spare moment for football. That, and I don’t have the NFL Network so I couldn’t have watched the Cardinals and Eagles anyway.)
I can’t, for the life of me, remember EVER playing football in the yard with the family on Thanksgiving. Apparently everybody does that, so I guess my family is strange. We play football together when we can, along with baseball, Frisbee, whatever. But never on Thanksgiving.
And really, how did football get to be such a huge part of the national T-giving tradition anyway? The feasting, I understand. I mean, the pilgrims and Native Americans gave us a pretty strong historical precident for gulping down lots of turkey and all kinds of other foods. But who decided that the whole nation would care about watching the Detroit Lions, and then channel their inner QB with the family in the yard? Is it just because football is so American? Is it just an extension of our collective nationalism, so we have to watch and play American football on this American holiday? Or is it just because this is the only time all the uncles are together and the beers in their bellies make them think they’re Brett Favre trapped in Uncle Bill’s body? (Ahhh, stereotypes. Nobody in my family is like this at all.)
I’m not saying football on Thanksgiving is a bad thing; who am I to argue with people engaging in and watching my 2nd-favorite sport all day? I just don’t know why it’s so strongly tied in with the tradition of the holiday.
Anyway, I hope y’all had a nice, happy Thanksgiving, and if you tried to flash-fry your turkey it didn’t burn the house down. And to you non-Americans, I hope you had a nice, relaxing…uhhh…..normal Thursday!
(Unrelated side note: Both of my dogs are sleeping in the room here with me, and the 2-year-old black lab/collie, Annie, is on the floor…and she’s going absolutely crazy. She’s obviously dreaming about chasing something, because her paws are flying all over the place, her ears are flapping around, and she’s even barking a little bit. Must be an exciting dream.)