A Turkey Day Miracle (Disaster?)

The Holiday season is all jolly, right?

It’s a time of happiness and love, right?

Wrong.

I had to reply to everyone’s classic “How was Thanksgiving?!” questions this week with “f******* horrible”.

No, it’s not because the Pats lost to the god damn Colts on the last play of the game Sunday. But yeah, that stunk too.

My fam spends every T-Day up in New Hampshire in the White Mountains. Well, we had a Thanksgiving Miracle of a foot of snow last Thursday.

So naturally, my car got stuck in the snow for 3+ hours and I missed dinner with my family.

Fun stuff!

That being said, a few hours prior to this disaster, I caught the game-winning TD with a one-hand grab in the end zone to win a Turkey Day Bowl Game in the freezing, pouring rain.

6 days later, I am still egregiously sore. Could barely walk for 3 days. Still hurts. But it’s good to know I would still be the best option the Patriots would have at WR currently if I were to suit it back up.

And I got to spend some precious time with my 5-month-old niece who is seriously giving me some baby fever. I mean look at this perfect little angel.

Yeah, she rocks.

Alright, let’s get back to the depressing part of this vacation and this newsletter.

The Windy Roads of Solution

There were some actual lessons I learned from being stuck in the snow on the side of the road on Thanksgiving for three hours and missing dinner with my fam…

Not gonna lie, it was a pretty traumatic experience.

I was stuck in like 4 different spots over a span of three hours in the cold while it was dumping snow missing my Thanksgiving dinner, and more importantly the hilarious end to the Bears/Lions game.

So, in a very hectic situation like this, I learned sometimes less is more.

There were too many people in the fam offering solutions, calling my phone with options and ideas on how to make the situation better (sorry Mom, I know you’re reading this but it’s just the truth).

There wasn’t a whole lot we/I could do and so I quickly cut off all comms to just one family member.

Too many cooks in the kitchen. Literally, too many on Turkey Day.

Too many people involved in any type of project can often lead to not get anything done and make matters worse. Just create an executive team and keep the group focused.

You know when less is also more? When driving in the snow. Don’t slam the gas when you’re stuck. Just taaaaaaaap it. Who would’ve thought.

Another lesson from the day is the importance of perspective.

Yes, it was a long day out there, hungry, getting cold and dark and I was nervous I was going to get eaten by bear in the middle of the mountains.

BUT….

I remained calm because I knew I wasn’t going to die. I knew I’d get home, see my family, drink some wine, get fat and everything would be alright.

Sometimes you just need some patience and perspective.

Perspective can be a very hard thing to have in the moment.

I think back to when we were building my sports newsletter start-up, Morning Blitz. One of the guys we worked with always said, “We’re not solving cancer, we’re trying to build a sports media brand”.

That did always help me relax a bit and realize things weren’t that serious. There are more important things happening in the world.

Yes, my car situation was frustrating but whatever. I was gonna make it home, eat some turkey and watch some ball.

Again, I was more pissed I missed the Bears meltdown at the end of the Lions game instead of the warm food. That was so hilarious, sorry Chicago.

That’s all she wrote, folks!

A couple life lessons from a Thanksgiving adventure.

Jokes aside, I had a fantastic weekend home with family. Hope everyone got to do the same.

I also hope everyone gets to experience a baby as cute as this thing one day…

See you next week!