We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Per our tradition, my wife and I went to her step-father and mother's home around 10:30 a.m.  There, we snacked and watched football while her father-in-law fried the turkey and her mother slaved in the kitchen.  My wife made the dressing which was delicious as usual.  The turkey, dressing, roasted vegetables, salad, and homemade rolls were all perfect as was the company.  Then we followed it up with her mom's italian cream cake and coffee---and more football! I just love her mother and father-in-law!

Then around 5:30 p.m., we schlepped (always wanted to use that word) over to my parents home for an evening meal with my parents, brother, sister, sister-in-law, newphews, niece, and my nephew's girlfriend. My mother slaved over a huge traditional meal of turkey, dressing, oyster dressing, "green rice", creamed potatoes, giblet gravy, and fruit salad.  My sister made chicken-n-dumplin's, which apparently my wife prefers over mine.

Afterwards, we had our traditional white elephant Christmas ornament gift exchange, which is always fun and results in a new ornament for each family's tree.

We are so blessed to have a family that still lives in close enough proximity to have these get-togethers.  What's even more of a blessing is that we all love each other dearly and genuinely care for each other.  I'm reminded of this every time I hear a self-help guru or psychiatrist on talk shows give pointers on how to avoid hurt feelings and blow-ups at holiday reunions. This always seems absurd to me, but it is apparent that there are families whose gatherings are not as peaceful and enjoyable as mine.  Mom, Dad, Monty, Mona, Tina, Mackey, Clayton, and Molly.  I love you all, and I am so proud to call you my family.  I am truly thankful.

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I'm so sick of this.  Just when the nonsensical expression, "at the end of the day", seems to have reached market saturation, another idiotic phrase is spewing from the mouths of the talking heads.  "Yeah, no..."  or "No, yeah..." I must've heard this utterance twenty times in so many minutes during my Saturday morning viewing of the national news.  These are interviews, debates, and extemporaneous conversations of alleged educated people.  I'm theorizing that the first word, "yeah" is acknowledging the question, while the "no" is the actual answer.  However, the purposes and the words can be inverted.  I'm probably giving them too much credit.  These are more likely to be modern versions of the filler words, "uh" and "um" that their college speach instructor scolded them for using.  These are phrases that simply buy them time to think of the politically correct answer to the question.  Whatever the reason, stop it!  You sound like a junior high kid who would be virtually mute if it weren't for their crutch-word, "like".

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