Gobble, Gobble

Originally I was going to complain about the state of our nation featuring politics, immorality and maybe even a mention of the weather.

Then I thought to my self maybe I should focus on giving thanks.

Like most Americans Thanksgiving makes the top three on my favorite holidays.

When I think of Thanksgiving Day, I have a few fond memories.

The three F’s. A hot fireplace, football and our course, food.

I say this at the risk of sounding like a pyromaniac. I’m not, but for some reason there is nothing more mesmerizing than a fire rolling over a log.

To this day I’m a little bummed our house doesn’t have a fireplace.

Every Thursday we made sure to tune into the NFL games.

This year the Bears will travel to Detroit and even though the Bears are on a two game winning streak, I fear they are about to get smashed by the Lions.

I hope they prove me wrong.

Growing up we rarely had enough family over to play football games against each other, but we would always go outside to toss the pig-skin a little bit.

As far as food goes... Turkey was never my favorite growing up.... If that were the case, I’d probably be leaner today.

For me it was all about the ham! The use of pineapples and sprite really set that pork butt off!

It was even better during the next few days of leftovers.

I used to love yams, stuffing, spaghetti and mac n’ cheese (not that kraft crap... The good stuff).

A lot of people like gravy on their stuffing, but from an early age I learned I’m a canned cranberries man and a gravy hater.

The only thing I hated about Thanksgiving was the copious amounts of food I would eat, without thinking about the consequences.

I’m proud to say that my portions have been more sensitive in the last few years.

Family gets honorable mention. My father does a lot of things good, but in Thanksgiving he prepared a couple of things that shined.

The first of which was his sweet potato pie. Which also may be one of the healthiest pies to eat.

I’m not going to lie, every time I had the chance to eat leftovers, the first thing I would think of is that pie.

He also used to make the best potato salad, I’ve ever tasted.

But back to family...

There was something awesome in knowing that every Thanksgiving at least one cousin would come by and since there weren’t many of us to play a pickup football game, we played Madden Football on any gaming system we could find.

In other news...

Marc Mariani, a Havre native was signed by the Chicago Bears to be the team’s return man....

That’s great considering Chicago could use all the help they can get.

Before his injuries Mariani was a pro bowl return man in Tennessee.

When I moved here from Chicagoland, I was often asked if I knew who Mariani was. I didn’t then, but after losing Devin Hester to free agency, I knew our team would struggle.

Along with our defense being historically bad and our offense not scoring, the Bears special teams unit looked terrible.

But there’s hope.

After seeing him on Sunday returning kicks, I have to admit, I’m already a fan of Mariani.