By Jim Vallet and Robert Perea
While I love all holidays, it’s the customs that our family observes around each holiday that I remember.
Our family’s favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. My wife likes to host a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and the more people she can invite, the more she likes it. She has always taken the day before Thanksgiving off from work, and spends the whole day preparing. Now that we have grandchildren, part of her preparation is planning craft activities for the kids. On Thanksgiving morning, she is up…well, I don’t even know how early she gets up, but by the time I drag my lazy butt out of bed, the whole house smells like turkey. Of course, all of us watch the Detroit Lions play in our Lions’ jerseys and sweatshirts at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST). I would like to say that we never partake of any libations during the Lions’ game due to its early hour, but that would not always be true. After football, the pace picks up quite a bit as last minute meal preparations hit a near fever pitch. Most of us sit together at one big table for our meal, and a new tradition is that my wife and I sit at the table formerly known as the “kids’ table”. After dinner, everyone helps in the clean-up before going outside for a campfire. At the end of my favorite day of the year, I go to bed with an unhappy belly but a happy heart.
Although Christmas Day itself has a hard time living up to the annual buildup, we have many important traditions leading up to December 25th.
Our first Christmas tradition is “Tree Day”. On the day after Thanksgiving, we all pile into the biggest vehicle we have and head for whatever area we are allowed to chop down our Christmas tree. When we lived in the Moapa Valley, our first stop on our way to the mountains outside of Caliente, NV was in Caliente where we obtained our tree permit, hot dogs, and chili. We then climbed 3-4,000 feet in altitude to the tree harvesting area. Sometimes, our tree hunt and subsequent cook-out was hampered by the weather, but even though we sometimes had to cook out at lower altitude we always came home with a freshly cut tree. When the kids got old enough, we stopped at the Knotty Pine casino in Caliente for a little family gambling (the family that gambles together stays together, right?).
Our next tradition was “Roof Day”. Roof Day came about when my then 2-year old son, unbeknownst to me, followed me up the ladder to our roof that I was decorating 30 years ago. Of course, once I had to lift my ladder-climbing son onto the relative safety of the roof, our two other children wanted to come up onto the roof, too. Thus was born “Roof Day”, a tradition I follow to this day, although now my fellow ladder climbers are our grandchildren.
My wife makes a great chocolate sauce that is perfect when heated over ice cream. A cool tradition in Moapa Valley is that all neighbors, co-workers, fellow church members, and friends exchange tasty treats. Besides my wife’s chocolate sauce, others would bring us homemade coffee cakes, candy, chocolate-covered pretzels, candy apples, liquors, homemade bread, tamales, jerky, cider, and store-bought treats. On Christmas Eve, my three children and I would deliver all the goodies throughout the Valley, a fun activity that turned much harder after the third hour of deliveries. By the end, my kids were begging to return home and the deliveries that were done by them 3 hours ago were now done by a much slower-moving old guy - me.
On Christmas Eve we would go to church (Midnight Mass at 10 p.m. ??!!) and then come home to a Mexican food fiesta. This could only go so late, though, because we had to move all the presents that “Santa” brought from their hiding places to under the Christmas tree. Not surprisingly, to keep the kids in bed past 5 a.m. the next morning was an impossible task.
A tradition that, luckily for me, was abandoned was me climbing on the roof on Christmas Eve after the kids had gone to bed and stomping around up there like I was Santa landing his sleigh. Until my oldest was 12, that worked every year but that year was the year my oldest son watched me climbing the ladder. Although that killed that tradition, it probably saved me from a ladder-falling-off-induced broken hip.
On New Year’s Eve we would go to a movie, bowling, and out for pizza before the roads were taken over by people more intent on exercising their God-given right to act like fools. That is another tradition we observe still, but again with grandchildren.
On Easter, we didn’t just hide our children’s Easter baskets. I wrote clues that would lead our kids from one clue to another and, eventually, to the basket itself. My oldest son today says that his dad couldn’t just hide the darn basket like “normal” dads, he had to make us read and think just to get some darn candy. But, he tells me he also writes Easter basket clues for his children.
And so, as we observe Thanksgiving (with traditions), my one wish is that more of the citizens of this great country realize how good we have life. I want to be thankful for what I have, not coveting what I don’t.
If you have been using my advice to make NFL football bets, you are probably not very thankful for my picks last week. I’ll try again now. Lines are from espn.com on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
Detroit Lions (-3) vs Green Bay Packers It’s official, the Lions miss Ben Johnson. Even though the Packers dominated the first meeting, I think the Johnson-less Lions will turn the tables Thursday.
Dallas Cowboys (+4 ½) vs Kansas City Chiefs The Chiefs aren’t dead, but I don’t think they’re back, either. At least, not back enough to give 4 ½ on a short week on the road against a pretty hot team.
Chicago Bears (+7) at Philadelphia Eagles If the Eagles are on their game, I’m wrong. I think that the Eagles seem to have good and bad games in bunches, and the second half last Sunday was bad.
Houston Texans (+3 ½) at Indianapolis Colts Did you catch that Texans’ defense??
LA Rams (-10 ½) at Carolina Panthers The Rams are REALLY good. The Panthers? Ehhhh…
Denver Broncos (-6 ½) at Washington Commanders No matter what you call them, Washington misses Jayden Daniels.
Last week 3-5
Season 46-32
Robert’s Picks
Air Force (-2 ½) over Colorado St.: It’s probably not a coincidence that I have watched less football this season than any year I can remember and I have a losing record. It’s also not a coincidence that Air Force got outscored 20-9 by UConn and 20-3 by New Mexico last week after quarterback Liam Szarka got injured in the second quarter of the UConn game. But Colorado St. is not as good as either the Huskies or the Lobos, and I don’t foresee a team with an interim coaching staff being able to stop the option, and the Rams’ offense has committed 8 turnovers the last two weeks.
Texas (+2) over Texas A&M: Even at 11-0, this is a prove-it game for the Aggies. They haven’t played any of the top eight teams in the SEC and all seven of their conference opponents have losing conference records. I’m not doubting they’re really good, but now they have to carry the weight of an undefeated season against the team that wants to beat them the most and which has beaten them 11 of the last 15 times. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but Hook ‘em Horns.
Minnesota (-1 ½) over Wisconsin: Seems weird that the better team is favored by less than the home field advantage, but Wisconsin is on the road after a Senior Night win over Illinois last week where they only passed for 92 yards and 84 of their 248 rushing yards came on one play. Minnesota is 6-0 at home and should go into a bowl game on a high note.
Browns (+5 ½) over 49ers: The Browns defense might be the best in the league, especially when you consider it’s carrying one of the league’s worst offenses. Despite how they stymied Bryce Young and the Panthers, the 49ers defense is definitely not. I’d be surprised if the 49ers can win this one on the road by a touchdown.
Buccaneers (-3) over Cardinals: Even if this is Teddy Bridgewater instead of Baker Mayfield, I look for the Bucs to get back in the win column after three straight losses. And if Mayfield goes, then I’m laying 3 in a game where the line will immediately jump to about 6.
Bills (-3 ½) at Steelers: I’d prefer not to have that extra half point in the line, but I look for a nice bounce back game from the Bills here.
Last Week
College 2-1
NFL 0-3
Season 19-19-1
NFL 16-21
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