My mom asks me what I’m looking forward to about the family Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow. I quickly replied that I was looking forward to arriving at 4pm, and being back home before 6pm. The response on the other end of the phone line as you can probably guess, was silence.

Of course I was being sarcastic.

Truthfully, I’m completely at ease with the holiday season so far – and perhaps that has a lot to do with the fact that the celebration doesn’t involve a long drive, or a plane ticket.

I’ve got so much to be thankful for, and I’m looking forward to celebrating some of that with the family tomorrow.

Here’s hoping that you all will get some of that action, as well.

To help you prepare for T-Day, here are a few links that you might enjoy:

First, good ol Pete over @ Blogness has a nice column on his other blog detailing why Dad never gets to offer HIS advice on Thanksgiving dinner.

Speaking of Blogness, Pete also has a special Thanksgiving playlist featuring songs about “thanks” and “giving” that will be available for one day only. Guess when it ends? If you guessed after Thanksgiving is over, well then you might just be a rocket scientist.

Then again, you might just be kinda smart.

(p.s. – congrats to Blogness on the Edge of Town on that one year anniversary!)

If you’ve got a good amount of driving to do, or just need some tunes to help maintain your frail grip on sanity, Amazon MP3 is offering up 50 of the bestselling albums from 2008 for $5 each – from Coldplay to BB King – there’s a lot to choose from. The list is updated hourly – Check it out.

They’ve got a whole mess of Black Friday deals going down as well, including some super-huge deals on box sets for those of you that love ’em like I do.

Finally, Jefito and the Popdose crew have a special Thanksgiving edition of the weekly Mix Tape that you can sink your teeth into, including the Arlo Guthrie classic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.”

Video of Arlo performing Alice’s Restaurant Massacree

Incidentally, this year marks the 40th anniversary for “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.” Guthrie will talk about the anniversary on the Friday edition of The Bob Edwards Show.

You can count on the fact that many classic rock stations will be giving Alice a midday spin on Thanksgiving, and you can also get your online fix via legendary New York public broadcasting station WFUV at 12:10pm. WFUV will celebrate Thanksgiving with an “FUV Feastival” on Thursday and Friday of live broadcasts recorded in the past year including Joan Osborne, My Morning Jacket, and more.

Stream WFUV online here.

That should give you plenty to do, listen to, and enjoy after you’ve stuffed yourself to the brim with all of the Thanksgiving goodness you can possibly handle.

Cheers, and Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

M

REO Speedwagon – Flying Turkey Trot from Essential REO Speedwagon