This Season I Really Give Thanks...

What a Thanksgiving! Up until two years ago, what is left of my small family, got together each year at my aunt's house for Thanksgiving. The family consists of two brothers, one halfway across the country & rarely showed up anyway, and two cousins. Once one brother and a cousin got married and had kids, time had to be split between my aunt's and the "in-laws". So the experience had been declining in recent years as a big family get together. Now that my aunt has passed on there is no real reason for us "kids" to get together since half of them have to take the real kids to the grandparents on the major holidays. This essentially leaves me with no plans for the holidays this year. I didn't realize Thanksgiving could be so great. To add to the experience, my girlfriend makes a ton working holidays, so she was taking the holidays to the bank while this was my first year in over 30 that I had 4 straight days off for Thanksgiving. I have always had to work all 4 days prior to this. No worrying about needing to let my dogs outside, no small talk, no drinking limits, no driving, no going outside in the cold to smoke and no more losing at Rook. My four day nirvana began on the way home from work. I picked up a 30 pack of beer and loaded up on two dozen Johnsonville Hotlinks, horseradish sauce, two tubs of frozen shrimp, cocktail sauce, a couple bags of salad, two bottles of peppercorn ranch dressing and various munchies that included a bucket of KFC, Salt & Vinegar potato chips and other equitable edibles. I spent the next four days going through bags & boxes trying to organize my recently moved life while in the background "Spike TV" had the foresight to treat me to a full 5 days of nearly every James Bond film...except my second favorite, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (why is that one is always ignored?) and buffered them with Three Stooges shorts. When I didn't want to watch certain Bond reruns, I switched between the Food Network and The World Poker Tour marathons while playing for play money on the internet, where I won $43,076...if I could only do that with real money. By the way, Alton Brown, you are my hero and Rachel Ray, you broke my heart when you got married, but I'll live through it. I only follow baseball, so football was not even an issue here....although I can understand other men's obsession and for them that would have replaced part of my chosen tv fare...but I digress. It was just me, the pups and four days of 007, poker, junk food and a healthy dose of Stooges. What more could a single guy ask for?