Sure, we tell our kids that Thanksgiving is about being thankful for what we have, but we all know that’s a bunch of BS.  The reality is that Thanksgiving is about eating way too much mashed potatoes, stuffing, pie and, of course, turkey.  This year, however, Butterball is warning that fresh turkeys might be in short supply.

Butterball is saying that they will only be shipping about half as many large, never-frozen turkeys as they did last year.  The problem, it seems, is that mysteriously their turkeys wouldn’t put on weight this year.

Butterball produces about 41 million turkeys a year, and one in four Thanksgiving turkeys are from Butterball.  Given that the national average for a holiday bird is 16 pounds, that’s a lot of demand not being met.

Before you begin to panic though, there is a large supply of frozen turkeys, so you can always feed your family a bird that has been sitting in a freezer somewhere for a while.  I joke, but they’re delicious and almost as good as the fresh ones.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and run to the store a little early this year.  Also, it’s probably not worth noting, but Turtle Island Foods, makers of the tofu based turkey alternative Tofurky, are not have any supply issues.