Honestly, Thanksgiving is one of my least favorite holidays. I love the idea behind it, and can fully support being thankful for all of the wonderful things in my life... but I think that is something that we should remember daily, not just remember because there is a meal connected to it.
And about the meal... I'd rather have Japanese... A little sushi and some hibachi. Steak, shrimp, fried rice and a coupel of tuna rols with wasabi... Or maybe a juicy steak... Southwestern Pasta with chicken?
Turkey, dressing, cranberry (canberry?) sauce, pecan pie, pumpkin pie... I don't care. In fact, one of the best Thanksgivings ever for me involved pizza.
A few guys I worked with that were single, or single for the weekend with family out of town, all got together and ordered pizza. We watched a few movies, played some video games and just hung out. For that day, we were family. We cracked jokes about ourselves and our spousal equivalents...
Another of my best Thanksgivings was with my grandmother after she got to the point of not wanting to cook. We got a big bucket from the Colonel the day before and just heated everything up. Prep took about 20 minutes and clean-up about 5. The rest oft he time was about the family. We mostly just hung out and enjoyed each other's company. My grandmother told embarrassing stories about ancestors...
The point is...
This isn't a day about food... That is just a distraction. It isn't even a day about "thanks"... we should do that every day. It is a day about being with people we care about and enjoying the time we have together.
I walked with my boys a few miles this morning. My wife went to a movie with her mother. Then we all got together and played and laughed and "were here"...
Happy Thanksgiving. Don't stress about the bird. If it caught fire and smoked everyone out of the house, it will make a great story in a few years...
I've been watching some of the NBC and CBS coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My wife is a (semi)reformed band geek, so she wanted to see the parade. Also, since WCC (World's Cutest Child) likes parades, we had a triple reason to tune in (1 for the wife, and 2 for the kid). 
So, for both of the broadcasts of the parade, all they did was self-promote and show commercial acts. Stephenson High School from Stone Mountain got about 10 seconds on CBS. I think they got almost 20 seconds on NBC... just enough to say who they were... and hear a VERY short clip of music.