Thanksgiving

If you pay attention to the time of my posts... yes it really is 523am. I have actually been awake watching Boston Legal since 430am. Well really that was after my little doggie woke me up at 415am to go out.

anywho...Boston Legal is probably one of the best shows on tv. and i am pretty sure I am the only person watching it. which is why it is being cancelled this year. the impending doom has left room though for a lot of "in the cameras face" kind of jokes.

james spader: oh denny you'll outlive all of us
captain kirk: you think so?
james spader: of course you'll be around doing priceline commercials long after we are all gone.

They talk about heaven and whether or not there is one. Also when you go to heaven how old are you? Are you there at the age you die? James Spader tells Captain kirk that he thinks you go there at the age you are when you are at your happiest. The best part of your life.

the show has always been a platform for current topics but this year i guess they figure, what more can they do except cancel us and they are using every episode for some sort of political agenda public service message.

last week a girl was fired for voting for mccain. she wanted to sue her boss so james spader went to talk to him.

james spader: you fired her for voting for mccain?
funny boss guy: no i voted for mccain, i fired her because she is stupid.
james spader: you sound like you fired her for voting for mccain.
funny boss guy: i voted for mccain because of his economic plan, for his foreign policy, because i thought he could lead this country better. do you know why she voted for mccain? because she thought sarah palin was spunky. and that makes her stupid and that is why i fired her.

it was classic and of course any sarah palin slam makes me laugh.

in last nights episode, the whole happy "family" of the law firm is invited over for Thanksgiving Dinner. Of course with lawyers everywhere,an argument over racism ensues. James Spader gives a lecture on how racist this country is and how people who think its over because we have a black president are dead wrong.

At the end of the episode he talks about his own thanksgiving when he was young. His mother used to work serving others and his dad was a drunk. he often spent thanksgiving alone in his room. In his mind he says this is the thanksgiving he always dreamed of where people can talk to each other about controversial topics, and be in each others face, laughing one minute, angry the next.He loved the chaos of the day, and he was thankful to be there.

When i was growing up, thanksgiving was bring a freak to dinner day. I dont know exactly how it started or where some of the people even came from but over the years, strangers would often show up as friends of our family and of course, there was always enough food. One year my uncle brought a gay couple to dinner, one of them was black and the other was white. It made for interesting dinner conversation and although i was only 12 i could still feel the tension from that day. That was the year my mother put my sister and I on the Port jeff train to manhattan, alone, and had some random old man watch us on the train. We had to change in Huntington and we just followed this man, me, 12 and my sister 8. I guess things were different then, but we were not city savvy. Not like my kids who could easily show up in manhattan and probably even find their way to carmines. We went into the city and my aunt met us at the train. We went and watched the balloons from the parade be blown up and then went to a party with pot, gays and tons of liquor. We didnt stay long but the gay couple came and slept at my aunts and uncles and my sister and i slept on the floor as they slept on the pull out couch. i remember being totally pissed and vowing to "tell" when i got home.

Apparently it still bothers me because i tell that story almost every year.




Over the years, thanksgiving has become the day before the biggest shopping day of the year. It is just a vehicle to get to shopping. maybe i'll have a little something to eat, but i pace myself so that i can read all the flyers and plan my shopping extravaganza.

last year for the first time ever I took children with me at the annual 430am shopping spree. i have to say it was one of the most enjoyable shopping days i have ever had. We got on line at Target at 450am and waited until it opened at 6. We rotated getting warm in Best Buy which had opened at 5. D3 and D4 got us hot chocolate and coffee as we waited on line in the freezing cold. D1 and D2 met us way later, when they woke up. We had already been shopping for 6 hours when we met up with them and we continued until about 6 pm. We were on a mission and with 3 people ready to knock people down...you can accomplish a lot.

They saw the best and worst of people which is what i love about THAT shopping day. There are people who would give you the shirt off their back and others who would steal your Furby out of your cart if you kept your eyes closed too long when you sneezed.

So what will Thanksgiving be like this year? Its hard to say... there are the usuals... mom and dad... my sister, her husband, their two kids... our first thanksgiving with merrys D1,C2(daughter 1, child 2)last year we chose to spend it with just my parents. Hubbys sister and nephew...always difficult missing her husband on the holidays...and then maybe some freaks...maybe a long lost friend, or a new boyfriend or someone else I can drag up from the gutter.

In any case... the political conversation has come to a halt since my obama has been elected. there will be talk, but thats ok...because that IS what a family is all about. Talking, yelling, eating, arguing, eating some more...its what makes the day great.

And for the first time in many months, all my girls will be home together.

and nothing could make me more thankful than that.