Gratitude, Attitude on Thanksgiving

First, for those of you dangling on my cliffhanger of NJ 15th District election results many weeks back, here's relief, in brief:
1. Overall, the message seemed to be "quit spending money!" Stem cell research and all the bond issues were rejected. So my bike path won't be constructed any time soon.
2. I think Shirley Turner won re-election for the State Legislature. I'm still trying to figure out who else won. It's not easy to go back and figure out local election results. Doesn't exactly make the NY Times. Don't worry; I'm sure we're in good hands. And if we're not there are a million self-made political commentators with blogs who will flush out the bad guys, or at least embarrass the hell out of them.
3. The offensive language about idiots and insane persons has been omitted from the New Jersey constitution. Phew.

So now I wanted to share some insights I've gleaned over this Thanksgiving weekend. It feels strange to wear sweaters because you have to, and not because you're trying to look the part of a Ralph Lauren-esque family (or as my cousin Georgia puts it, "You're Ralph Lauren, but messy."

I really haven't missed my close proximity to California wines. Seriously, New Jersey devotes a lot of shelf space to great wines and has some good wines of its own. On Wednesday afternoon I walked into Phillips Fine Wines...and kept walking. Room after room of wines from every region in the world. I was on a quest for Zin; Bon Appetit recommended it as a good pairing with turkey. The young guy who helped me seemed very knowledgeable and though they didn't have the few vintages I had circled, he was able to offer some alternative suggestions. We had "The Monster" from Norman Vineyards in Paso Robles. Ahh, home in a bottle.

Rutabagas are REALLY hard to cut.

Getting five people to smile and keep their eyes open and on the camera at the same time is nearly impossible. And gets more impossible every year. Hope everyone will like our annual family photo and not be too critical.

We all stated what we were grateful for at the table; most of the responses involved "family, friends, food" -- the three F words that are not offensive in the least.