Why a Bird?

Hi,
It's that time of year again.
You know what I'm talking about...the bird time. Leaves have turned their wonderful colors and now are starting to do nothing more than clog up both the roads and the gutters. Slight gusts of wind blow, and finally you can see your breath when you go out late at night or very early in the morning. Its fall. And at the base of fall is Thanksgiving. The quintessential bird holiday.
Yes I know, we are celebrating the first time that the Pilgrims ate with the Indians and many people try to duplicate the tradition. We all have been forced to sit through that children's program at the school. You know the one. They dress all the kids with masks that they drew out of construction paper, and have feathers in their hair...some are Indians, some are Pilgrims and some are "narrators" (those who can't act apparently, or in some cases, these are the kids in their grades who actually can read!) But after years of listening to the story I still don't understand one thing. WHY DO I HAVE TO COOK A BIRD???
Tradition.
My mother, who passed away in 2001, tried to explain the concept to me but apparently it fell on deaf ears. We, after all, are the family who doesn't usually put up a Christmas tree. (no, it is not a communist plot, we have three dogs in a small house and I am tired of picking glass out of paws. We actually use smaller decorations instead so chill.....). Since we don't do the tree thing, we have done a Christmas present scavenger hunt (loved by my son) and other things of that ilk. But Thanksgiving, in my mind, is a food holiday. Just the idea conjures up thoughts of going to my parents house where my mother would feed 30 or so people at dinner. (never mind though that only 6 might actually be AT the table, she would still feed 30!) But she said, "Turkey for Thanksgiving is tradition! Everyone does turkey! How can you have Thanksgiving Dinner and no turkey????" She would cook enough potatoes to feed a third world nation, stuffing that would end up in several sheet pans, and numerous pies, nut roll and poppyseed roll and cookies. If she had the time to make cookies. I remember an Alka Seltzer commercial many years ago that used to air around the holidays that started with a woman's voice saying "I'll bring out the first turkey!" Now you get what I mean.
I do believe in traditions. Especially food based ones. Growing up in our house, most of the traditions we had WERE food based ones. That is just who our family tended to be. But I am not glued into an individual item like a turkey, to dictate what we really have for tradition.
I have been blessed the last few years with some very close friends. Since my parents died, having holidays was at best difficult, as there was no one even to do the "basic traditions" with. The last few years were different, and I am grateful for the loving friends we now have.
But guess what? One of the little buggers likes the turkey. And if I have to be honest, so does my husband. It is a rather large undertaking, and we don't often have the option to cook something so large, and to share it with many people.
This year we will have our holiday with our friends and some new ones will be joining us, and yes, it will be turkey. I am very happy to share this time with them all. But all I can say is this....why doesn't anyone ever want to talk about a Thanksgiving Meat Loaf?
DP