We took a break from our usual Shaw's/Roche Bros. shopping routine today and went down to the Super-Mega-Humongo Stop & Shop in Dedham to take advantage of the 5% one-time discount you get when you sign your life away to Stop & Shop so they can data-mine your purchases to hell and back and bombard you with endless promotions (i.e., you register your new 'n' improved see-through Stop & Shop card).

They have so much room at this Colossus of a store that the deli department was able to devote an entire display case to a Thanksgiving diorama featuring two Pilgrim dolls giving thanks for nature's bounty, in the form of cold cuts, cheeses, olives and pumpkins. Don't worry, a few aisles away, they had a complete selection of Halloween candy.

Not the best cell-phone photo I've ever taken, but you get the idea:

What some Boston bloggers are thankful for today (most are thankful for more than one thing, so click on the links):

Jenny Frazier: Family and friends.

Angela: New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick for being so friggin awesome.

Red: That Don Zimmer charged Pedro Martinez and I was alive to see it happen.

NaturalBlog: Official Red Sox caskets, which you can get at the Magoun-Biggins Funeral Home in Abington, Mass.

Deb Geisler: My bluer-than-blue state, where men and women have choices about who they may formally bond to.

Amy Derjue: Not having to put up a $50,000 bond.

David Cutler: The hyperlink.

Steve Nadis's six-year-old: Martin Luther King and all that he had done.

Just Giblets: Having given up smoking.

Finally, we have Othniel77, who isn't thankful for anything today, because she refuses to acknowledge the holiday: I do not celebrate holidays that I find have no merit to the nature of my spirit or the spirit of those around me.

Location

Thanksgiving done right: Hyde Park Avenue near West Street in Hyde Park today.

In case you're not too busy with your own Thanksgiving preparations, you can join Nika.

Michael Paulson asks some members of the local clergy: Why be thankful when times are tough?

Meredith O'Brien composes a Bingo card for a game the whole family can play on Thursday.

Lorianne DiSabato spies some walking platters on Dedham Street in Newton.

In these hard economic times, we're all looking for ways to save some cash. The State, as well as The City of Boston and other local municipalities, say they are strapped. Well, here's an idea: Don't put up or turn on Christmas lights until after Thanksgiving.

Some of you may recall how Jim Sullivan got fed up last year and started demanding action against stores and radio stations that get all Christmasy before Thanksgiving.

He's getting an earlier start on his campaign this year:

... Can you imagine how sour the pusses of some corporate execs would be if they received printed-out copies of blogs that say "Thanksgiving Comes First"? What if all of us called or wrote some radio station, telling the programming director that we decided to stop listening? If we all wrote a "letter to the editor" at our local papers, we could definitely expect some to be printed. ...