This Thanksgiving, Mr Jeb Bush will be eating either turkey or crow, depending on whether his elder brother, Mr George W. Bush, is heading to the White House or back to the Texas governor's mansion.
With the key to the presidency being Florida, where John Ellis Bush is governor, the pressure on the 47-year-old second son of the former president, Mr George Bush, to deliver it is enormous.
"Little brother recognises that Thanksgiving might be a little chilly," the Republican nominee joked several times during a last-minute sweep across Florida at the weekend to fend off his Democratic rival, Mr Al Gore, in a state that should have been in Mr Bush's column long ago.
After a cliffhanger and a recount that threatened to drag on, Mr Jeb Bush returned to the state capital, Tallahassee, to watch but not participate in the process that could finally deliver the state and the presidency to his 54-year-old brother. If Mr George Bush loses Florida and the election, he will fill the final two years of his second four-year term as governor of Texas.
"Needless to say, there was some consternation with Florida's governor during our family dinner when somebody jumped the proverbial gun," Mr George Bush said on Wednesday.
Mr Jeb Bush said on Wednesday he never wanted to go through an evening like Tuesday's again, "one of the most amazing, emotionally intense evenings of my life".
He did not watch early returns at the Texas governor's mansion but with other family members and friends in the presidential suite of the Four Seasons Hotel about 10 blocks away. He joined them later in the upstairs living room where he kept track of the count in Florida by logging on to a computer, scribbling on bits of paper and making calculations.
When George W., his wife and parents abruptly left a traditional election day family dinner at an Austin restaurant to return to the governor's mansion instead of the hotel suite as planned, Jeb was conspicuous by his absence.
"I wanted to watch the returns," said George W. "And I wanted to watch them with my mother, my dad and my wife." His mother, Mrs Barbara Bush, told reporters there were 100 people in the hotel suite. "It's very hard to be intimate," she said. No one mentioned Jeb.
The relationship between Jeb and George W. was complicated by the Texas governor's decision to run for president. Of the Bush children, Jeb had appeared to be the one destined to make a bid for the White House.
During the campaign, Jeb shunned the national spotlight - although he stumped tirelessly for his brother in Florida - leading some Republicans to grumble that perhaps he could have done more.
Jeb's maiden appearance on the Sunday morning television shows - usually a frequent stop for politicians, candidates and their surrogates - came just last Sunday as Florida looked to be slipping away. During a frenetic 24 hours in the state last weekend, George W. heaped more pressure on its governor at rallies. "I trust my little brother and when he looked me in the eye and said `Florida's going to be Bush-Cheney country', I believed him," the Republican nominee said.
Mr Jeb Bush responded with a ringing endorsement and a hint of what was at stake.
"If Florida goes for George W. Bush, the country will elect a man of honour, decency and integrity," he said.
The two Bushes have travelled the Sunshine State together on George W.'s campaign plane and on his bus, horsing around with reporters and showing flashes of sibling rivalry. George P. Bush, the handsome and charismatic son of Jeb and his Mexican-born wife, Columba, has courted the Hispanic and youth vote on behalf of his uncle.
Constantly throwing their arms around each other's shoulders and exchanging hugs, George W. likes to refer to Jeb, who is taller and more solidly built, as his "big little brother".