Wednesday, November 21, 2007

It's alive!

My blog, that is. After almost a month of neglect, I found it gasping for breath, eyes closed, pulse weak, begging for a glass of water.

I wanted to post about Halloween, and the fact that no one goes trick-or-treating, even though the shops are all festooned with Halloween decorations in October. And then I wanted to explain that we always have a Halloween party for our children and their friends, and take them trick-or-treating in our building, but we have to distribute bags of candy ahead of time to the neighbors so they'll have something to give when the kids come by. And how some of the neighbors had to be taught trick-or-treating basics 101, because the first year, some of them would dump the all the candy in one kid's bag, wave to the rest of the candyless kids, smile, then shut the door.

But no one wants to read a Halloween post on the eve of Thanksgiving, so I'm moving on to Turkey Day--a brief post today, then more tomorrow.

Every year I make Thanksgiving dinner for my husband's family, who are all Thanksgiving experts, of course, because they've seen American Thanksgiving dinners in movies.

A few years ago on Thanksgiving, my father-in-law gathered my daughters up onto his lap, and said in his let-me-tell-you-a-story voice:

"Girls, today is a very special day for Americans."

My girls looked at him expectantly.

He continued: "Today is the anniversary of the day the Americans won their independence from England."


In the end, it's all about food and family.

Happy 4th of--er, Thanksgiving, to all!

8 comments:

Disco Mermaids said...

Amazing description of Halloween. You could be the woman who brings trick-or-treating to the Old World. Years from now, there might be songs about you!

Keep workin' it...

- Jay

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Rose Green said...

LOL.

What gets me is when Americans ask me if Germans celebrate Thanksgiving.

A harvest fest, okay. But no, Germans don't celebrate the fact that some Native Americans helped some English religious refugees not starve to death in North America in the 1600s.

Still, I guess gratitude isn't limited to national boundaries.

Happy (late) Halloween, and Happy Thanksgiving, too!

Anonymous said...

LOL! My favorite part is how your in-laws are experts at Thanksgiving because they watch movies.

Does that mean you have to have a centerpiece? And carve the turkey at the table?

Anonymous said...

I tried too, Natalie. I'd come by everyday and dab your blog's head. I told him you'd be back soon and that he shouldn't worry so much. I even told him a few corny jokes to keep his mind off of things.

I have to say, I sure am glad you showed up when you did. I'm clean outta jokes!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Danette V.

Unknown said...

Welcome back, Natalie! We were starting to get worried about you. I always thought that Thanksgiving was a purely U.S. holiday, but I just learned that Canadians have a Thanksgiving, too (the second Monday in October) But it's more of a harvest/thanksgiving holiday and is unrelated to the U.S. Thanksgiving (colonists and Indians and such).

TinaFerraro said...

Just dropping by to say hello, Natalie...I've been remiss from blogs myself lately, doing book revisions and trying to get the foundation set for the next one.

Glad to hear all is well!

Tina

ecm said...

Natalie,

Loved your stories esp. the brief Thanksgiving anecdote. LOL Your FIL is a riot. Hey, maybe you could tell him how we gather around the table and sing "The Stars-Spangled Turkey"?

You should see how MY FIL is...a retired PhD DuPont Chemist who LOVES decorating his family room with a funky kind of "trailer trash" art for Thanksgiving. Funny thing is, I'm not kidding. I shall post a pic or two on my justsketch blog just to show what I mean.

Cheers,
Edna

rilla jaggia said...

Hey Natalie,
glad to know you puffed some life back into your blog... and showed me how to resuscitate mine. Problem is, I've not only been neglecting my blog, I hadn't had time, all these days in India, to read anyone else's either. So, in a sick kind of way, I'm glad you were awol, coz I don't have that much catching up to do!
Your Italian turkey day reminds me of the one we spent in Sydney when my mom happened over and we had the 'Thanksgiving Special' at an American restaurant called the 'Rattlesnake'... hee haw! Their turkey was probably shipped over a month earlier from the States because it was GHASTLY! And I thought my turkey was bad...
Good to have ya back mate... but... where are you?