Our Thangsgiving Ritual

Every year Linda & I have a Thanksgiving ritual. Erev Thanksgiving we take our nieces and nephews to watch the balloons for the Macy’s parade being blown up. We also take the girls for manicures and pedicures then a trip to the candy store where the goal is to spend more of our money than the year before. The family record if I remember correctly is $190.00. The candy (or at least most of it) is consumed later in the evening where you can hear shouts of “Party, Party and No Sleep, No Sleep”. During the party we also try to have a theme. The best theme and/or project we ever did was to create a “family tree” to be presented to Linda’s folks. I printed out pictures from my collection of “family photos” and the kids cut them up and placed them on a tree that they had drawn. The kids did present that project to their grandparents and they couldn’t have been happier if you gave them a new car.

Two years ago I challenged my 15 year old nephew to have a pedicure. I even offered him $100.00 as a bribe to accept my offer. He did me one better by offering to do it for free by daring me to have one first. Let the record show that I “chickened out”. This year I challenged my 10 year old nephew to do the same this year. I added a $50.00 bribe to “sweeten” the pot. Not only has he accepted my offer but he did it faster than Brittany Spears would shed her top, laughing all the time.

The moral of the story?

When will I ever learn that I will never out think my nephews? If history is the judge, never is the appropriate answer.