Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving Day has gone by and it’s been just like any other day. Of course, we don’t celebrate it here in Australia so it really is an ordinary day. We did buy a turkey this year but it still hasn’t thawed after several days so our big dinner has been postponed to the weekend. I’m not risking food poisoning to make it thaw faster. We don’t usually do a big dinner at home but decided to do something this year. Most years this day is marked by going out to eat. But it’s never a traditional meal.

While checking on some recipes I stumbled upon the American Women’s Club online and was aghast at the exorbitant charges for their dinner. The only event we’ve ever attended by them was an Independence Day do and it was pretty awful. Terrible food, high entry fee, poor entertainment and, most importantly, an unfriendly attitude towards outsiders put us off ever attending again. That was many years ago and was my first and only purposeful attempt to connect with Americans in the area.

That’s not to say I’ve not met other Americans going about my daily life. I have been friends with one for a few years. I met one this year in a professional capacity and another quite recently via an online group although we’ve haven’t made contact in person just yet.  I’ve not met any of these people because they are Americans, though,  and only discovered our similar backgrounds after becoming acquainted. Then there are numerous others I’ve encountered quite briefly going about my business, oftentimes not even realising I’ve met one until well after the fact. I just don’t happen to notice the American or even Canadian accent all that well, I guess, because it sounds normal to me.

Maybe one year, we will share Thanksgiving with some of my American friends. Meanwhile, the family and I have to finalise our menu for the weekend. I’m going to do a homemade pumpkin pie and we’ll have mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce and some sort of vegetables. We will also have cornbread as a special request of Game Fanatic. I’m looking forward to sharing this special meal with my family. Bring on the weekend!