But that's not a complaint.  I've got an amazing family and love just about all of our traditions... assuming one uses an over-broad definition of the word love, but I digress.

Like with any family, many of our traditions revolve around the various holidays and the way we celebrate them and Thanksgiving is certainly no exception.

This morning those "kids" who are still living at home will get up early (for a day off) and decorate napkins.  A lot of them will watch the big parade on the television, waiting for a glimpse of Santa Claus.  There's the ever-popular Thanksgiving Day dinner, complete with unofficial but very real competition to see who among the De Leeuw men can put away the most turkey.  

Like many families, before we actually dig into the giant bird, and in a family of fifteen (once you figure in mom and dad and sons and daughters and daughter-in-law and niece and nephew) plus significant other(s) it is a rather LARGE bird, we go around the table naming something we are each thankful for.

Which would be sweet and very Norman Rockwell except that nothing at the De Leeuw household is ever quite as sacred as it might appear to outsiders.  Thus, every holiday the same predictable items are named by about half of my siblings.

Casey is thankful for his dog(s) and his wife and daughter (cue: awwww) and football, Jake is thankful for turkey and football, Ted (when he isn't at West Point) is thankful for turkey and football, Juli is thankful for boys.  Same story every year.  Me?  Thank you for asking.  I'm thankful for football.  Yes, even the Lions, but especially the Denver Broncos.  This year I'm particularly thankful for the Indianapolis Colts, too, who beat the Chargers on Sunday night to preserve my team's tenuous two-game lead in the putrid AFC West.

Now, there's plenty else I can be, and am, thankful for, too.  Great family, warm house, a working automobile, a loving church home, freedom, a functioning comma button on my keyboard, blah blah blah.

But since this is a political blogging community I figure hey, what better time than now to share the top five semi-half-way-political things I'm thankful for here in Michigan on this Thanksgiving Day.  So without further ado...

1. I'm thankful that there seems still to be some consideration being given to the idea of a Granholm appointment somewhere in the Obama administration.  (Note: Madame Governor, I know you've made an awful mess here in Michigan these last six years and times are tough.  If the family budget doesn't allow, I'd be willing to pony up the cash for your one-way airplane ticket myself.)

2. But on the other hand, I'm thankful that Barack Obama seems to have woken up even a little bit and that the Mother of Economic Calamity still isn't a sure thing for a federal appointment.  As much as I'd like to send the woman and her job-killing spree away (for forever) do I really wish her brand of employmentocide on the rest of the nation?  

3. (This one is going to be an excercise in finding silver linings.)  Continuing along that 2010 path, I'm thankful for the counteless genuine pick-up opportunities for real conservatives all across state government now that we're in the process of swallowing the hard medicine that is almost blanket removal of the "old guard" moderate Michigan GOP.  The electoral team that earned the Party that unelectable Democrat-lite brand image are gone or leaving in the next month, replaced by real, live, full-strength Democrats.  We're going to be worse off because of it over the next two years but possibility freaking abounds for November 2, 2010, from the Governor's office to the 1st, 7th and 9th Congressional districts to the state House and state Senate.  (Of course, we're still going to have to make it happen.)

4. I'm thankful that the ultra-liberal mainstream media as we know it did not exist in 1789 or they would have incessently nagged and belly-ached and hand-wrung and attempted to foment national unrest and impeachment proceedings after reading and parsing(but never reporting, in full) President George Washington's original Thanksgiving Day Proclomation.

   Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor...

   Yeah, that just wouldn't fly.  Chris Matthews would still get shivers but they'd be down his back, not up his leg.

5. I'm thankful for all of you!  This community continues to be a great outlet and a group I'm PROUD to be associated with.  You're the best.  Even you, John Galt.