With the holiday coming up, and myself and many others on Thanksgiving break, there is little more to do than sit back, watch TV, and eat. Thanksgiving is a holiday of eating, after all. Now what makes the “meal of all meals” so spectacular? It all comes back to preparation, preparation, and the perfect combination of quality and quantity (and for those of you who have never read my weekly picks before, let me promise you this is indeed a football blog, not a home advice column.).

The Turkey – this does indeed deserve to be capitalized. A good turkey is the smallest it can be while feeding everyone present and providing enough excess for shredded turkey sandwiches the following week.

Stuffing – the flavor and contents within “make” the stuffing. Include things that everyone will eat and contribute to a general flavor that both the adults and picky-eating kids will enjoy.

Potatoes – the best combination I have found is yams and mashed potatoes. Gravy on one or both can’t hurt, either.

Cranberry Sauce – always buy more than you think you’ll need, because this is the biggest sure hit next to the turkey.

Pumpkin Pie – make sure Redi-Whip is present.

After that, add your own twist on the holiday meal. The one year I remember best was one where we couldn’t actually prepare the majority of the items listed above. So we had about half of the table set, went out, and brought back butter & garlic wings and a couple pizzas. And it went extremely well.

Now what do many people do when plowing down the turkey? They watch the Thanksgiving day games! It may not be the big day yet, but most teams are in action this afternoon, and some will be playing again on short rest Thursday. I went 8-7 in my picks last week, and 95-67 looks good, but only ties me with one ESPN expert… for dead last. Assuming I don’t completely blow things, I hope I can hit 100 wins this week.

New Orleans over Atlanta

Pittsburgh over Cleveland

Detroit over Tampa Bay

Green Bay over Minnesota

Kansas City over San Diego

St. Louis over Chicago

Carolina over Miami

Baltimore over New York Jets

Houston over Jacksonville

Tennessee over Oakland

Indianapolis over Arizona

New York Giants over Dallas

Denver over New England

San Francisco over Washington

I wish all of you the very best, hope you have a wonderful week and several days off to spend with your families, and, to reference a popular new movie that just came out, in whatever you do, may the odds be forever in your favor.

God Bless!

– Dan