DAY AFTER

I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday of the year. There is a 'stresslessness' about it. The whole family is gathered 'round and there is lots of laughter and sleeping in and game-playing and movie-watching. Our particular Friday-after-Thanksgiving tradition is taking the train down into Chicago and walking the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue and then eating deep dish pizza at Giordano's. Today, we broke that tradition a bit and went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was a great time.

The other thing Thanksgiving is about ... even the day after ... is FOOD.

The whole country gets in on it. Some lucky 'gobbler' yesterday got his picture taken 1,000 times yesterday morning in Washington, D.C. - this one was from IOWA and named "PUMPKIN." That's right, they TURKEY had a NAME -- and it got a PRESIDENTIAL PARDON by George W. Bush. The Bush's then promptly turned around and went into their White House dining room where they had a DIFFERENT 25-lb. turkey already prepared by the White House crew -- cooked, basted and carved and sitting on their dinner table.

It's a rather fascinating holiday, isn't it? While the meal is arguably the tastiest of the year, yesterday it had some weird stuff you seldom see on the table the other 364 days of the year.

- I am hooked on green bean casserole with cream of onion soup and boxed onion strings thrown in. It's about the only time I get it, but I LOVE it.

- A couple of people in my family will absolutely devour that wiggly, jiggly, gyrating cranberry goo. Spaghetti sauce is a sauce; barbecue sauce is a sauce. Cranberry sauce is a goo. Like a memory foam pillow, it always returns to the same posture.

- I know some people who put giblets on the table at Thanksgiving. We didn't yesterday, but many people love them. Often they're chopped into mini chunks for the stuffing. One question. Aren't the giblets sealed in a body cavity bag to signal "stay away?"

- When was the last time you had marshmallows for supper? A good campfire isn't GOOD without them, but it's the only time of the year we slather them onto our carbohydrates.

- And ... sorry ... I have to say it ... turkey. Personally, I loved our bird yesterday - but historians can't prove the Pilgrims ever ate them. Do you eat it on your birthday, wedding day or any other celebratory time? Nope. Just at Thanksgiving. The homage to Christopher Columbus — and his big Italian eyes that discovered America — is an inscrutable, up-to-30-pounds, three-foot-tall game bird with a 'wattle' and irridescent body feathers that doesn't fly (True. Wild turkeys can fly but the turkey YOU ate today never flew a day in its life.) and forages on the ground for insects. Go figure. But we LOVE it.

And I'll be loving it again tomorrow ... and the next day ... and the next day ... on sandwiches after that ... then in sack lunches to work ... then in soup etc . etc . etc.

And be blessed.