The Thanksgiving conundrum

Tomorrow is thanksgiving in the US of A, and according to tradition, there must be a turkey carcass involved in the festivities. Traditions are great, and are to be supported within reason, as they provide the glue that keeps a society from fragmenting.

However, our problem is that we are torn between providing Andrea with a traditional thanksgiving, and the fact that the traditional thanksgiving dinner just isn’t all that good. Turkey is not a good meat. Sorry, but there it is. Turkey doesn’t taste all that great. Flame all you want—there’s a reason you only eat it on thanksgiving.

Since neither me nor my wife grew up with thanksgiving, it’s kind of hard for us to get in to the proper forms. This wasn’t an issue when it was just us two around the table, but now as Andrea is growing up and starting to form her memories of How Things Should Be, it’s s becoming a bit of an issue: Should we suck it up and do the turkey thing in order to normalize her on the tradition, or should we eat something we actually enjoy?

This year we will have our usual thanksgiving ersatz meal of scrumptious shrimp pie (mmm … so tasty), but next year Andrea will be four and we’ll have to give some serious thought to what kind of tradition we want to provide her.

Kid complicate things.