So the second big family event for Bluet was Thanksgiving. As most of our British readers won't know all the ins and outs of thanksgiving, I thought I'd provide a handy, cut out and keep Q&A for future reference.
Q: What is Thanksgiving?
A: From what I have picked up (so possibly riddled with inaccuracies) this is the story of Thanksgiving:
In
the olden days, brave pioneers from the Old Country arrived in America.
During the summer months, the living was good, with food and drink
plentiful. However, these brave pioneers didn't realise that winter was
just around the corner, so rather than setting aside some supplies like
squirrels, they gorged themselves like pigs. So winter came and they had
nothing to eat. Fortunately, there were some very helpful native people
already living in America who helped out these poor, starving pioneers.
To say thanks for this generosity, Americans now meet up once a year to
gorge themselves on food and watch sport.
Unfortunately,
the native people contracted many diseases from the Europeans, or were
shot by the Europeans. However, the native people who are left carry on
this tradition of helping the descendants of the pioneers get through
the long winter months by running casinos and selling cigarettes.
Q: When is Thanksgiving?
A: It is an annual event, the last Thursday of November. The pioneers travelled thousands of miles to get to America, so to celebrate this most Americans like to go home to be with their families, and take the Friday off too. This means that on Wednesday, all roads and airports are rammed with people (probably not the trains, though, as you can't really get anywhere on American trains). Airlines, realising this, charge an enormous amount to fly on that day. So we left New York early Thanksgiving day. It is a bit like travelling on Christmas day in the UK, except that public transport is functional. As you can see, Bluet loves the travelling:
(actually, she was extremely well behaved, and slept for an hour and a half on Emily's lap on the plane).
Q: What do you do on Thanksgiving?
A: When the pioneers arrived in America, the only bird available to eat
was the wild turkey (bald eagles are a bit stringy). Therefore, for
Thanksgiving, Americans traditionally eat Turkey. They accompany this
with 'trimmings'; so it is basically the same as Christmas dinner,
except for some reason many Americans like to eat sweet potato with
marshmallows on top. (Although not the Corse family). Although she
couldn't eat the Turkey, Bluet was able to eat her first mashed potato.
After one is full and slipping into a food coma, it is traditional to watch 'the big game'.
Q: Who won the big game?
A: I have no idea.
Q: Should we have Thanksgiving in the UK
A: well, it is fun, a good family occasion without the stress of buying presents or anything like that. But if you are still sitting on the fence, the best thing about Thanksgiving is that it marks the beginning of the festive season, so unlike the UK where shops start playing Christmas songs in August, there is no sign of Christmas until Thanksgiving is out the way. The campaign to bring Thanksgiving to the UK starts here.
Although we ate plenty of delicious food, we skipped the big game
(and in fact celebrated Thanksgiving on the Friday). Instead we enjoyed
Bluet's Grandparents marvellous new cabin on their cattle farm in the
Ozark mountains in Missouri (as seen in the film 'Winter's Bone'). The
cabin is ideally located for activities such as canoeing (our
pre-thanksgiving feast excursion sans Bluet) and also for gathering
around an open fire.
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Wild Cows Roam Free
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We also went on a brief hike at the Sam A. Baker State Park. This was not Bluet's favourite activity. Maybe she got cold or cramped in her carrier? Who knows.
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| Briefly before Bluet's Patience wore out |
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| Much happier, back in the cabin |
We had a long journey back home - mainly because the bus ride from the airport to our house took AGES. Still, Bluet enjoyed it.
(Thanksgiving was documented by Bluet's American cousin Nate in pictorial form:
