Thanksgiving is a time where all your in-laws descend upon your house to eat food that took you hours to cook and was hot and perfectly prepared 2 hours ago but it now cold and soggy because they couldn't be bothered to show up when they promised. Food includes mutated turkey monsters, cranberry jelly (a red-purple polymer that a few deluded souls try to eat each year), stuffing (store bought sawdust or home-made goo), and a cornecopia of carbohydrates, fats, and sugar - enough to feed a small nation for a week. After stuffing themselves full of food, all the guys sit on the couch watching American football, giving thanks that they didn't have to help cook or clean up. The women do all the cleaning, giving thanks that they don't have to do this much work again until Christmas. In many families, it's also a time to catch up on all the nearly-buried grudges and repressed traumas that everyone pretends don't exist the rest of the year. There's a reason people tend to call the holiday Turkey Day now. For some of us, the day ends up being a real turkey. : Cres (Why, yes, the in-laws are coming over shortly, can't you sense my excitement?) ;-)