When I was a kid, there was only one holiday. THE holiday. Christmas. Presents. Santa. Presents. Food. Presents. Parties. Presents. It was all about December 25th.

Then I grew up, got married and had kids of my own.

Christmas is now one of my least favorite holidays. It’s just way too hard. All the decorating, the baking, the shopping, the wrapping, the get-togethers. And it’s all gotta sparkle magically. Argh.
At this point in my life, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Think about it. It’s the perfect holiday.

1. No decorating required. Now I do a bit of autumn/Thanksgiving decorating, but it’s not a lot. Takes me about 15 minutes to change my dining room tablecloth and centerpiece, add some turkey, corn, pumpkin and scarecrow decorations to my living room, and we’re appropriately festive.

2.  No gifts to select, hunt down, purchase, hide and wrap. No e-mails back and forth to find out what Uncle Joe wants this year. No Amazon wish lists. No breaking the family budget to buy little Timmy the X-Box he’ll die without. No racing out at some ridiculous hour to fight psychotic shoppers over the last X-Box at Wal-Mart at the fabulous sale price that will save you $20.

3. No insanely long list of holiday activities that we must complete or risk breaking ages-old family tradition, thus emotionally scarring little Timmy and Janie for their lives.

4. No exclusion. I can wish anyone and everyone a happy Thanksgiving 100% worry-free. Anybody I encounter anywhere can participate if they want. Thanksgiving’s not a Christian holiday, a Jewish holiday, a Muslim holiday, a black or white or lovers’ or Irish-American or anything else. Even my foreign students enjoy the time off and seem to regard Thanksgiving as a quaint, harmless tradition.

A few of my non-American students were curious about my family’s customs and seemed bemused by my answers. They wanted to know what we do on this day of giving thanks. That’s what made me realize why I love this holiday so much. What do we do?  Well, we cook, we eat, we watch football and nap. What could be better than that?

If you think Christmas is better, more power to you. Enjoy the beginning of your season, marked by the doorbuster, pre-dawn sales at department stores around the country. I’ll be in bed, sleeping off my turkey binge.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cool title, huh? I wish it were mine, but I can’t take credit. It’s actually the title of the new album (oops, I mean CD) by Duran Duran.

I’ve been a “Duranie” for 25 years. I own every album, plus some bootlegs. I have the original Duran Duran, Rio, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Arena, and Notorious on vinyl, cassette tape, CD and MP3. I’ve seen the band in its myriad incarnations in concert seven times in five different cities. I met them in 2005 after winning a backstage pass from the fan club. I went into labor with my daughter at their Indianapolis show later that same year. (It was the bass line in “Notorious” that did it.) We stayed for the end of the show. My laundry room is decorated with collages of their press clippings, ancient posters that were once taped to the walls of my childhood bedroom, and a calendar I got off their website which I check religiously. I’ve stuck with them through thick (the Rio - A View to a Kill days) and thin (1990’s Liberty - a flop of an album).

I’m a true Duranie.

So I cannot believe that I’m betraying my favorite band by admitting that I’m disappointed in the new album. I’ve been waiting for it for two years. As soon as I got out of work last night, I rushed to buy the CD. In the past 12 hours, I’ve listened to all 12 tracks twice, and some of them more than once.

I just don’t get it.

This one’s a collaboration with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, both of whom I like very much. As a matter of fact, the three tracks on which their influence is most obvious are the ones I like most - “Falling Down,” “Skin Divers,” and “Nite Runner.” But even those three songs aren’t that great. They sound plastic, shallow, and empty, like stripped-down versions of Timberlake’s “Sexyback,” which I love. The rest of the album feels cold to me, kind of a downer.

I’m going to keep listening to it. Maybe it’ll grow on me. Maybe I’m getting old. Or maybe the band has finally re-invented itself in a shape I don’t understand. I’ve always felt like Duran Duran and I have grown up together. When I was a hormone-charged teenager, their music was dark and sexy and mysterious and fun. When I was a hard-partying-but- searching twentysomething, their music was heavier and a bit more introspective. When I got married and settled down a bit, the band seemed to be maturing too: 2004’s “Astronaut” was complex and lively, but had some depth to it. This CD feels like an experiment that didn’t quite pan out. And maybe I’m too busy now with family and career to spend time experimenting, risking, taking leaps.

Like I said, though, I’ll keep listening. I’m not giving up 25 years for one album that doesn’t appeal to me.

Besides, it’s still better than Liberty. With a much better title.