Dreaming Of A White ... Thanksgiving?

TigerBlog just looked out the window and saw that the rain turned to wet snow. Ultimately, it's supposed to drop about four inches on the Princeton area.

The day before Thanksgiving? What's up with that? Bing wasn't dreaming of a white Thanksgiving. That's supposed to be Christmas, which is still a month away.

A few years ago, Princeton had itself a white Halloween. That was then followed by hardly another snowflake during that entire winter, which was one of the warmest ever. Maybe this is a good omen?

Last winter was awful. Snow. Ice. Cold that lasted through most of April.

This year? Who knows. TigerBlog, who must prefers a beach to a mountain, is hoping for a mild winter.

Today, though, he doesn't seem optimistic about the chances of little snow for the next few months, followed by temperatures that routinely hit 60 in March.

Of course, if there was one day that could do without a big-time Nor'Easter, it's the day before Thanksgiving, which just happens to be the busiest travel day of the year. If you're on the road today, well, be careful - and try to smile at the irony of it all.

TigerBlog is a huge fan of Thanksgiving. It's his favorite holiday, actually.

He's written a lot about that through the years. You can catch up on them, if you'd like.

Here's 2013.

And 2012.

And 2011.

And 2010.

And 2009.

If you're not going to click on five links, TB can sum it up with this, which is something that appears word-for-word in three of them:

As holidays go, you can't do much better than Thanksgiving. It's got it all, really: a huge meal (with turkey, no less), football, family, history (dates back to 1621), start of a four-day weekend for most people, leftovers. It's even a secular holiday, so every American can dive right in, regardless of religion.
 
The Lions and the Cowboys, obviously, always play at home on Thanksgiving, and the NFL has now added a third game (maybe a little too much). Beyond watching football, how many out there have played their own Thanksgiving football games, all of which, by the way, are named "the Turkey Bowl?"

The holiday may lag behind Christmas in terms of great Hollywood movies, and "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is no match for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Still, there are some great moments in movies and TV shows around Thanksgiving.

Rocky and Adrian had their first date on Thanksgiving – "To you it's Thanksgiving; to me it's Thursday," Rocky said romantically – as did Meadow and Jackie Jr. on "The Sopranos" (it didn't quite work out as well as it did for Rocky and Adrian). "Everybody Loves Raymond" had two pretty good Thanksgiving episodes, the one where Marie makes a low-fat dinner and the one where Debra makes fish instead of turkey. As an aside, TigerBlog's Aunt Regina once made Cornish game hens instead of turkey, so he knows how they all felt. And of course, there was the Thanksgiving episode of "Cheers," which has the big food fight at the end.

The Woody Allen movie "Hannah and Her Sisters" starts and ends on two different Thanksgivings. "Miracle on 34th Street" is a Christmas movie, but it does start with the Thanksgiving parade in New York City.

And of course, there is the best of all Thanksgiving movies: "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." It'll make you laugh a lot and cry a little, and it ends on Thanksgiving.

TigerBlog is going to amend one part of what he wrote, the part that goes before the sentence about the Lions and Cowboys. TigerBlog used to spend his Thanksgiving mornings at high school football for many, many years, back when he was a high school student (and one year a trumpet player in the marching band) and then when he was covering high school sports in the newspaper business.

Other than that, TB stands by all of what he says about Thanksgiving.

He's worked a lot of years on Thanksgiving, even here at Princeton.

This year isn't one of them, though Princeton Athletics hasn't stopped for the holiday. The men's basketball team is in Southern California for the Wooden Legacy Classic. The women's basketball tea is in an even warmer locale, Cancun, Mexico, for its own tournament.

TB assumes that all necessary holiday arrangements have been made for Thanksgiving on the road.

There is a lot of hockey this weekend at Baker Rink as well, with the men against Michigan State Friday and Saturday and the women against Minnesota Saturday and Sunday.

Other than that, it's all about Thanksgiving.

Hopefully your travels are easy ones. Hopefully you find yourself with family and friends.

Hopefully your own Thanksgiving traditions are like those in the movies. Hopefully you have a great holiday.

And perhaps you can take a minute or two to stop and think about what it is that you're really thankful for - and then share that with the people who need to be reminded about it.

And hopefully the snow doesn't stick.

Happy thanksgiving everyone.