As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly — the 2024 Thanksgiving thread

Because school is out for the whole dang week and people are already traveling …

I give thanks for all of you weirdos, including the ones I blocked because you’re just too weird.

 

Apologies (sorta) for dragging politics over here,
but this is Thanksgiving 2024 in plenty of places.

Looking forward to hearing some
family tales from your own delicate trenches ...

 

Thanksgiving at the Wilson household will be low-key this year, and that's a good thing. We're avoiding Mrs. Wilson's side of the family, most of whom are totally opposite of where we stand on most issues, so we don't have to deal with that. And we haven't gotten together with my side of the family since my folks have been gone, which is just as well.

So it'll be just the four of us, and Thanksgiving lunch will be fried chicken and we're figuring out what to serve with. And after lunch will probably be a round of disc golf at the course down the street. It's shaping up to be a lovely holiday.

 

Here's the thing I've found: At this point, my journalism friends and co-workers actually know me much better than my extended family, unfortunately, since we newsroomers often spend more time together in real life, so I usually work the holidays to steer clear of any tensions that might arise during my family's blessed holiday "festivities."

Mom and Pop passed a few years ago, and then my siblings and their families scattered pretty fast. Most of them are MAGAs and Trumpers anyway, who by nature will blindly back whatever whiteys take over next. (I am a centrist independent.) And since they have no idea of long-range ramifications other than "Biden is a dumb-fuck radical geezer who raised our gas prices 10 cents!," I have no idea how to communicate with them anymore.

We tried the "no politics" rule of conversation. Didn't work.
The MAGAs kept hinting at their grievances, even though they're rich.

We were kids together, in a good home under a good roof, decades ago.
Sadly, we just don't know each other anymore. It truly sucks, but there it is ...

 

For some reason, it was determined that we're going out to eat on Wednesday evening, and nothing is scheduled for Thanksgiving itself even though three of us have houses in the same neighborhood.

Therefore, I have zero guilt for booking a ticket to my home away from home to see a friend I haven't seen in more than three years. Will fly up Thursday and be there for a few days. Kind of the best of both worlds ... family doesn't feel blown off – I booked nothing until they firmed up plans and warned them I might do this around Labor Day, not as a threat but to emphasize that doing so is anything but – and I get to hang out with a friend in friendly, familiar surroundings.

 

Am I one of the too weird? Because I would like to be or just find out what it takes to be considered too weird for you.

 

I can't understand this inability for people to discuss things. I'm from a pretty conservative family, but I've never had trouble talking to my cousin's husband who has worked in Democratic politics for 30 years. His father-in-law is a pretty conservative law professor and they get along fine. No deep MAGA types, though.

 

I'll be sticking with my new tradition of going to the best barbecue joint in the city and having the set Thanksgiving dinner menu before making a video call home. Perhaps the mood for the latter will be lighter now that Nebraska is back to qualifying for bowl games.