Thanksgiving Post 2022

Welcome to my Thanksgiving Day post for 2022. The Better Half and I will be at home for the Turkey Day having a nontraditional meal, and our daughter will be off to have Friendsgiving with friends, so it will be a nice quiet time for us too. If you are traveling for the holiday, please stay safe and have a good time. If you are staying home, I hope you all have a good and safe time. 

I decided to once again put together a small set of links, with a bit of my commentary, to give you something to read and maybe be amused during this time of year. 

Before I go further, a small side note. The last time I did a Thanksgiving Day post was in 2018. It was before the pandemic hit, but things were already tense in 2018 (I can't imagine why). Back then I wrote a bit of advice for folks getting together over the turkey dinner, and I think that advice is very applicable this year, so feel free to check the 2018 post out. The post also has some additional trivia bits that you may still appreciate this year.

And now, without further ado, here we go. 

Some holidays advice to get along better

• Here is some good simple advice, via The Grio: learn to say NO this month. I would add that this is applicable also to Christmas and the rest of the holidays where you may be getting together with family and/or friends and/or other people. The bottom line is to set your boundaries, make them clear to everybody, and enforce them. Someone tests you? Walk out if you are visiting, kick them out if you are hosting. Set ground rules for your celebration and stick to them. As they write, NO-vember is “a time to start saying ‘no’ to people, places & things that drain your energy.”This is about protecting yourself and protecting others when some bad situation breaks out or an asshole decides to disrupt the harmony. So learn to say NO and enforce it. 
• On the other hand, this is a time of year you also find stupid advice. I'd say to ignore this article via Big Think suggesting you do a little counterfactual thinking as part of your gratitude. In plain English that means things may be bad, but think that they could be worse. I say fuck that shit. We have been through hell in the last few years ranging from the regime of the Pendejo in Chief to the pandemic that is still going on. I do not think anyone out there or me should have to think gee, how much worse can it get given that we have already hit the worst, and it is not over yet. Having said that, I would say as I often say do what you can with what you have. Be grateful for what you have, for the small things, for family (whatever form family takes for you), and the things that are really important in life. In the end, no matter how bad the Hard Times get, just remember those things that really matter to you and those close to you.
  

The economy of Thanksgiving

• Farm Bureau, which tracks every year how much the traditional Thanksgiving dinner costs, reports that the cost has gone up 20%.  For folks who may be a bit more visual, the nice people at Farm Bureau even created a graph to summarize things. 

 

 

• The costs of travel during this holiday are also up according to CNN. Whether you are traveling by air or land, costs are going to be more this year. Plane tickets are more expensive. Gas for your vehicle is more expensive. This does make me glad we stay home for the holidays; in addition to less hassles it also means less costs for us.  

 

 Thanksgiving Food

Turkey meal photo from the National Turkey Federation (via Farm Bureau).

 

Naturally, the highlight for most Americans that celebrate Thanksgiving Day is the food, especially the turkey. As I mentioned, we do a nontraditional meal in our house. That is pretty much dependent on what we feel like having on a particular year. This year it's going to be beef enchiladas, seven layer bean dip, chips and tortillas to go with the dip. The Better Half makes her favorite taffy apple salad (I admit I am not a fan, so she makes a small batch she enjoys, but others who have tried it swear by it). We'll also have a nice cheese and cold meats tray to snack on throughout the day. The one bow to tradition we make is we make two pies: a pumpkin pie and a chocolate chip cookie pie. We'll probably also have a cocktail or two. 

Apparently, we are not the only ones who might not want a traditional Thanksgiving meal, so let's see what some other folks are doing: 

• A chef for Salon suggests ditching the turkey for these alternatives. However, the chef does not really ditch the turkey since they suggest things like turkey tamales, turkey mole, and a turkey breast schnitzel. So what they really mean is to ditch the full bird, but keep the turkey meat. It's not exactly ditching the turkey. We in our house actually DO ditch the turkey in favor of other things. That article headline was a little misleading to put it mildly. 
• This other author, also writing for Salon, claims that what you really want is a Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pizza. While I am all for pizza for Thanksgiving, putting pumpkin on it is not my ideal, but what say you folks? Feel free to check the article and the recipe, and if you decide to make it, please comment and let me know how it turned out. 
• The Grio does offer 7 turkey alternatives that are actually alternatives to turkey. One of the suggestion is the classic ham. Many households often have the ham and the turkey. Maybe this year you just highlight the ham and skip the turkey. If you like pumpkins, you can try making stuffed pumpkins. Check out their other ideas. 

 And finally, a special edition of...

Great Debates of Our Time

 

This year's debate topic: cranberry sauce. Make it yourself or get the canned stuff? In the opening round, this writer for Salon is passionate and proposes that people should not fuck with tradition. They want their canned stuff.  

Personally, I do not really understand the American tradition of cranberry sauce (or jelly but hush). I get you are supposed to put it on the turkey, but most people do not, so often the sauce ends up ignore on the dinner table, often left in the shape of the can. 

So what say you folks? Homemade, pre-made, or the usual canned (usually Ocean Spray brand). Again, feel free to comment. 

If you made it this far thank you for stopping by and reading. Again, I hope everyone who celebrates has a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. If you do not celebrate it, I hope you do have a happy and safe day. Peace.