Thanksgiving at Granny's House

Things I'm thankful for.

   Not to sound cliche, but the things I'm most thankful for are my family and friends. I won't dwell on that though, as I don't wait for a special day of the year to tell them that. I tell them as often as I can how I couldn't be me without them.
   I'm thankful for several other things as well this year. There are the things I don't think about much, like the fact that I have my health or that I have an enormous DVD collection. OK I think about that last one a lot, but you get what I mean.
   Then there are the things that I do think about a lot, how luck I am to have finally gotten a job I truly enjoy, something I haven't had in a long time, or how since getting this job I have become closer to my father than I ever thought possible. We still don't always see eye to eye, but we spend a lot of time together. That is thanks to him living Downriver, and me living in Ohio, so I stay with him at least once a week when I work at night. It's been good to get to know him really for the first time over the last few months.
   I'm thankful for the rest of my family as well, my sisters whom I rarely get to see, my mother, who is my mother and I'll leave it at that. My grandmother, who had a hand in raising me, and helped to shape the man I became, despite out obvious political differences. Mostly this year, I'm thankful for my soon to be new step-father, who has been in my life for just over a year now. I know I'm an adult and all that, but it's wonderful having him around, and to see the spark in my mother's eye that never used to be there.
   I'm thankful for all of the blessings in my life, including but not limited to my friends, new and old. I'm the type of guy that has always known a lot of people, but not really had many friends. As open as I am with things, I've always kept things close to the vest as well. I've done that by carefully selecting my friends. I'm very thankful for the relationships I've had, and continue to have with my few close friends. I'm also thankful for the relationships I've made with new co-workers since starting at the News-Herald. Some of the people here have already become members of my 'close' friends circle, though I wouldn't ever tell at least one of them that, she'd make fun of me for being sappy.
   I'm also very thankful for one very special Australian lady, and she knows exactly why, words can't fully explain it.
   I have many other things to be thankful for as well, but I'm more interested in what you are thankful for, so please drop me a note and let me know.

Top 10 Thanksgiving themed movies

Thanksgiving is not traditionally a holiday that is associated with films. However there are many films that

include at least some scenes set at Thanksgiving.

Here’s the list of the top 10 films with a Thanksgiving theme.

10.      “Home for the Holidays” (1995) — Directed by Jodie Foster, starring Robert Downey Jr., Claire Danes and Holly Hunter. In this story of a family on the mend, Hunter plays a single mother that decides to fly home for Thanksgiving, only to find out that her teenage daughter insists on staying home to spend the holiday with her boyfriend. The whole family is filled with crazy characters that leave the viewer thinking about the special characters within their own families.

9. “Funny People” (2009) — Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a world famous comedian that finds out that he has a terminal illness. He hires a new writer to help him return to his first love of doing stand-up comedy, and along the way the two of them become friends. Most of this film doesn't include Thanksgiving themes, but one of the best scenes in the movie is set in the apartment of the newly hired assistant in which we find out that you don't have to be related to be family.

8.         “Dutch” (1991) — Dutch Dooley is getting married, but he hasn't ever met his fiancé’s son. In an attempt to get to know him, Dutch volunteers to pick the boy up from prep school and return home in time for Thanksgiving. Wacky adventures ensue as the two guys learn to share the love of the most important woman in their lives.

7.         “ThanksKilling” (2009) — What happens when the turkey decides to eat you for dinner? Watch this one to find out. This is the only horror movie to make the list.

6.         “Son in Law” (1993) — Yes, a Pauly Shore movie made the list, not because he is a good actor, but because there aren't a lot of movies on the topic of Thanksgiving. It's about college freshman that returns home with a fake fiancé to upset her parents.

5.         “The Ice Storm” (1997) — Set the weekend after Thanksgiving, 1973, this film tosses an eclectic bunch of family and neighbors together that frankly don't get a long, yet are stuck together due to the worst ice storm in more than a century.

4.         “The Big Chill” (1983) — Not to be confused with the made-for-TV film of the same name from 1999 is a completely different story. This film is about a group of seven friends returning to a post Californian neighborhood around Thanksgiving time to mourn the loss of a dear friend.

3.         “Scent of a Woman” (1992) — Again not generally considered a “Thanksgiving” film, but it does have an excellent scene set around the holiday, and it is an excellent film that won Al Pacino an Academy Award for best actor in a leading role.

2.         “Miracle on 34^th Street” (1947 and 1994) — both versions are excellent, and of course few would consider it a movie about Thanksgiving, instead considering it a Christmas flick. It's a fair thought, with Santa Clause being a main character, but the whole movie is set around the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

1. “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987) — One of the funniest films ever made. This tosses Steve Martin and John Candy together and tells them just to be funny, and it worked. The men suffer through various modes of transportation while trying to get home to see their families for the holiday.