< by Nate >

When it comes to Thanksgiving traditions, the Careys take the cake.

Competitions run rampant, ranging from who will get a turkey leg, to who will eat the most blueberry pie, and the family favorite, who makes the best Old Fashioneds.

Come 12:30 p.m., everyone is asleep. The food comas have kicked in, the Kesslers is running low, and other than a few more slices of pie, not much is being digested … until 5 p.m., when you heat up the leftovers and dig in for Round 2.

And again, we sleep. This sleep, however, is not food-induced. It is necessary. This second sleep is to help prepare for what is to come.

No, I’m not talking about Black Friday (the family thinks it is crazy). What follows is something that can’t be controlled: Christmas decorations.

Come the Friday after Thanksgiving, the Careys enter Threat Level 1, or the Green level, as I call it. With Christmas a month away, there is plenty of time for decorating. But first, and foremost, are the outside lights, to show your holiday spirit long before the interior is chipper enough.

This entailed my mother and I taking out, checking and attaching the lights to the eaves trough around the front of the house. Soon, lights on the crabapple tree were added, followed by reindeer and finally floodlights on the big pine trees on the street corner.

(The best non-tradition was the first year of the floodlights, when my little brother had to crawl through the culvert with an extension cord.)

Within a 24-hour period, Thanksgiving gets bulldozed by Christmas. Holiday cheer is kicked up 10 notches, enough to bring The Grinch out of retirement.