Ramblings, rumblings, grumblings, and rambling grumbly rumblings.

We're having Thanksgiving dinner just the four of us this year. A variety of logistical challenges - some related to Katie's dietary restrictions, other merely timing and miscommunications of one kind or another - has us at home. We'll go to Michelle's parents' house this afternoon for dessert. While were at it, we'll take a large portion of fresh homemade cranberry sauce to the Troop A headquarters of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Gotta support the folks who are supporting us...and, well, having two trooper friends helps, too.

We did our meal a little different this year. Since it was just us, we got two turkey tenderloins and one drumstick. This was a natural turkey, not a Butterball or Tyson, and the difference was marked. The meat was darker, for one thing: the drumstick so dark and with an iron-y flavor that bordered on organ meat, rich and firm. (Pensey's Mural of Flavor for the rub.) The white meat was darker than your average commercially available bird, and nearly as flavorful as the dark meat. The juices made wonderful gravy, as you might expect. We'll never buy Butterball again.

I know that the affects of tryptophan are a myth, but the myth is making me awfully sleepy.

So, with the orgy of lip-syncing and commercial sponsorship that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade done, dinner done, we're off to Blue Springs for pie, thence to MSHP headquarters to spread the cheer. A good night's sleep, then a day of house decorating, and the Christmas season will officially be here.

I haven't done any of the "thankful" stuff that's been going around - mostly on Facebook - because I simply don't feel it day to day. It gets buried under the daily worries and frustrations. So, let me sum up:

I'm grateful I have a job. The pay isn't as high as I'd like - or as high as my family needs, frankly - but our bills are paid, and no one is knocking on the door with foreclosure papers.

I'm grateful Michelle and I can cook. We had to learn how to accommodate our daughter, but damn, we do eat well. I finally grok gravy, can pan sauces be far behind?

I'm grateful I have in-laws that love our children and want to be involved in their lives as much as their advancing years will allow.

I'm grateful for my wife, and our children. The ways you enrich my life are immeasurable and priceless.

[Error: unknown template qotd] I spent News Year's Day feeling out-of-phase and listless, but that comes of a late night (among other things), and I doubt very much is an indicator of how the rest of the year will go. I didn't perk up - not really - until the evening. A meal of Chinese food, kind of a tradition at our house - and some small physical activity helped.

Onward.

In our family, we've pledged to make this a year of better balance, and better attention paid to the things that matter. Imperative (bills, IRS), important (kids, family, friends), needs (flooring, go figure), and wants (DTV converters), for examples.

Stay focused: If a cup of tea would be comforting, make the tea right then, don't put it off just because something shiny sparkles in the margins of our attention.

I want to not speak when whispering will do, to not raise my voice when speaking will do, to not shout when raising my voice will do, and ultimately to not shout at all. It's rarely needed, anyway.

When I work, I want to work like I'm showing off. When my partners think I'm a genius, I want there to be a real reason, not just because I whipped through something by the seat of my pants too fast for them to catch the details.

I want to make more music, shoot more video. I want to write more songs (that's a whole post, right there.) I want to sing like Josh Groban but still sound like me.

I want to beat my kids every day. They know what I mean :)

I want to love my wife every day, even in those times when we don't much like each other.

The new year is just an easy way to mark a line in the sand and say, "From here, these things will change." Arbitrary, but you have to start somewhere, right?