It's Traditional

I love it when Brits wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. They're always so gleeful and delighted when they do -  something about engaging in another nationality's cultural events, or perhaps a positive ironic exchange (as the first people to celebrate Thanksgiving were getting away from the British), or maybe they're just angling for turkey and pie. Whatever the reason, it's charming and cheering and sweet.

Last year's holiday celebration was a new experience, as we had a lecture that day (and I think every English person on my course said 'Happy Thanksgiving' before any of the Americans had a chance) and then got together that night for an American Thanksgiving in London. I made an apple pie from scratch. (I still have the unopened can of Crisco purchased as a backup in case the butter pastry didn't work.) I introduced several wide-eyed impressionables to the wonder of apple slices dipped in caramel sauce. We had a truly stellar turkey, although it wasn't served until an hour or so after the meal actually started. I taught the entire group our family Thanksgiving hymn, "Johnny Brubeck"*.

This year I'm in Canterbury while my friends from Central are in London (and points far-scattered), and my Kent course-mates are in Germany at a theatre festival. I have a ticket for a show this evening, and plan to study, apply for Christmas jobs, and get my tourist on by visiting a monastery and the nearby 'oldest parish church in England'. I will also be searching for truly amazing pie. There is plenty to be grateful for, and not just in a 'could be worse' kind of way: I'm grateful to have smart, funny, caring, wonderful friends both here and back home in the States. I'm grateful to have the means to do what I'm doing (and grateful to be so busy with it all that I don't often have time to think about how it'll take me the rest of forever to pay off the student loans!). I'm grateful for tremendous supervisors and lecturers. I'm grateful to have a healthy, functioning body and am a little more determined every day to take better care of it. I'm grateful my brother's family is being supported and cared for by friends and neighbors, since we can't be there to help. I'm grateful my hair growing out doesn't look as strange as I'd feared. I'm grateful for a bus pass. I'm grateful to be an effective, contributing member of a ward full of lovely people. I'm grateful for a pleasant room, and that Canterbury is such a nice place to live.

Believe me, there's lots more where that came from, but I think it's time to get started on finding that pie!** Happy Thanksgiving! May you eat, rejoice, and be reminded every day of the things that are most important!





* The family in this video sings a slightly different version of the tune, but you definitely get the picture. And they've got at least one verse I've never heard before! I'm going to go learn it, and teach it to my family next year! 
** Tomorrow, I think, may see me breaking out that Crisco and making some pie-dough cookies. Yum.