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IN NORMAN ROCKWELL’S beloved 1943 oil painting, “Freedom From Want,” (also known as the Thanksgiving Picture), the patriarch at the head of the table is dressed for the annual feast in a proper suit and tie. I shudder to think what that well-appointed man would think if he wandered into the dining room of my own Turkey Day feast. Thanksgiving in my house is a casual affair: T-shirts, jeans, a non-flour-splotched sweater if I can muster a costume change after cooking. Still, it would please Mr. Rockwell’s elder to know there is one steadfast rule: no sweatpants.

This…