that bird deserves some respect, people

Okay, it's been a week since Halloween, right? The jack o'lanterns are rotting away, patiently awaiting their fates in trash bags or compost piles. The candy buckets and bowls are most likely emptied of the top notch Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers and Milky Ways, while only the Mounds bars and Laffy Taffy junk is still sitting at the bottom. With Halloween past, it's pretty logical what holiday comes next, right? Well, if we look around, it seems that too often, merchants are barreling right ahead to Christmas, which personally stresses me the frick out.

But beyond my own personal stress level of work-related deadlines, reviewing deadlines, gifts that need to be accrued, and decorations that need to be hung with care, really, there's another important reason why we need to scale back on the rush to push Christmas all up in our faces.

How about Thanksgiving?! You've heard of that one, right?

I grew up in New England, you know, the capital of Autumn, and it's always been my favorite time of the year. The colors, the sounds, the smells... every year they return in full force, and I'm reminded of how Fall kicks every other season's butt. Halloween and my birthday are two biggies, but the winner of the season is most definitely Thanksgiving. Last year, I shared our nontraditional family festivities, and I'm looking forward to this year's relaxing days with my wacky family, whatever it entails.

But, the push toward Christmas seems to be getting in the way of Thanksgiving, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. I gotta say that I love the new Respect the Bird movement, sponsored by a site that I've been relying on for years for my culinary pursuits- allrecipes.com. The point of it is pretty simple: "a grassroots movement to savor the true meaning of Thanksgiving and tune out the distractions of Black Friday that have intruded upon Thanksgiving week."

How can I not stand behind this?! I love the idea of focusing on the Thanksgiving holiday for the family time, the incredible food, the idea of gratitude, everything. Christmas will come in due time, and it's a wonderful holiday but it doesn't need to take the wind out of Thanksgiving's sails to prove it.

Do you want to stand behind Thanksgiving's rightful place? If you want to join me, come take the pledge. I'm number 946!

If you're not a blogger, but you're an avid lover of Facebook, check out the Respect the Bird page to join in the fun.  I owe allrecipes lots and lots of love for all the yummy (and doable for those with no cooking expertise like me!) recipes and advice over the years, and now I'm an even bigger fan for their commitment to Thanksgiving.


With nothing but respect for that delicious bird,