Cricket for Thanksgiving?

Empire State Building lit for Thanksgiving

Uniquely American holidays celebrated in a foreign country are somewhat like the proverbial tree that falls unheard in the forest. Did it make a sound?

Macy's Parade from the New York Athletic Club

Like Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day, we celebrated Thanksgiving while living in the US in the traditional American way. With family and friends, watching a parade, eating and drinking, and enjoying sports on TV or in the stands. (In the case of the three summer holidays, that sport would be sailing, baseball and tennis in that order. Thanksgiving was for football.)

Kansas City's Crown Center is lit on Thanksgiving night.

Growing up in NJ, Thanksgiving was always my mother's holiday. My grandparents and various other relatives came to our house for dinner. My mother always served an antipasto and lasagna before the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner!

After the Macy's parade and dinner, the menfolk watched football and the kids watched the annual broadcast of King Kong and The March of the Wooden Soldiers on TV.

When we first moved to Florida, we would take the auto-train back up north for the long Thanksgiving weekend and spend it at someone else's house, either with my Uncle Ray's family in Cedar Grove or with my Aunt Helen and Uncle Pat in Mantoloking. After a few years though we stopped making the trek, stayed home and celebrated in Florida. One year we even spent Thanksgiving at Disney World. They have their own Disney Thanksgiving Day Parade by the way which we watched sitting on the curb of Main Street.

Thanksgiving in KC means dinner for 50+

When my parents moved from Florida to Virginia, Thanksgiving moved with them. Fairfax County where they lived was still pretty rural back then so it was very much an "over the river and through the woods" experience.

But after Alex and Nick were born, it became my Vince's turn for a while to make the turkey. We did that for a few years when they were very young, but when we took firm possession of the Christmas season at our house, Thanksgiving once again became a roving holiday.

in Plymouth, MA

We spent it some years in Florida with Vince's parents (more Disney World), some in Kansas City with Vince's sister and her huge family of eight kids and grandkids, as well as Vince's brother who had another five kids (and kicked off the Christmas season in KC's Hallmark Plaza), and some in Chicago and later, Indianapolis and Denver with my sister and her family (all cities with great Children's Museums for Black Friday too!)

We spent Thanksgiving weekend once in Plymouth, MA where we visited Plymouth Rock, the replica of the Mayflower, and Ocean Spray Cranberry World ... and we ate an authentically inspired Thanksgiving dinner at Plimouth Plantation. PS, I found out that there was no lasagna on the menu  at the first Thanksgiving.



 

CMU campus in Pittsburgh

One year we even spent Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh of all places. My son Nick played football when he was a student at Carnegie Mellon University and in his Freshman year they played a game on Thanksgiving Day.

After the game (they won!), the four of us had dinner at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel where Vince, Alex and I were also staying. (Very nice historic hotel by the way if you ever find yourself in Pittsburgh.)

We ate our Thanksgiving dinner in the hotel's American Brasserie dining room where the chef expertly prepared perfectly sized individual turkeys for each table. We even had leftovers which is crucial after Thanksgiving dinner.

 

dinner is served at the Welts'

Even when we stayed home in NJ for the holiday weekend, we still roved. We either had dinner on Thanksgiving at my brother's house in Middletown or with our friends the Welts in Morristown. A couple of our NJ Thanksgivings also included a Pingry football game with one or both of our sons playing.

Thanksgiving Eve

I never minded not cooking the "official" Turkey Day dinner because it meant we were freed up on Thanksgiving morning to pop over and watch the Macy's Parade in person, either on the street or from the comfort of someone's office conference room, apartment or private club overlooking the parade route. And to go ice-skating in Central Park and then watch the balloons being blown up on West 78th Street next to the Museum of Natural History on the night before.

We would always cook a mini-Thanksgiving dinner at home sometime over the weekend when we were in town if only to provide the best part of a turkey dinner, the leftovers. For turkey and rice soup. Hot turkey sandwiches. My mother's recipe for turkey croquettes. It went well with our other Thanksgiving weekend tradition - cutting down our many Christmas trees and getting a head start on our massive holiday decorating.

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

Even though we rarely spent Thanksgiving Day cooking at our home, we at least always spent it in the United States with family and friends. This will be the first time it will be just the two of us on non-native soil.

Vince and I will be in Joburg on Thanksgiving Day this year. And just like with the other uniquely American holidays, he does not get Thanksgiving off from work. We got around this work impediment by having some of Vince's office over for a team meeting and turkey braai just prior to Thanksgiving. This allowed us to have the all-important leftovers for some turkey and rice soup on Thanksgiving night.

Instead of football, we will watch cricket. And the only Macy's Thanksgiving Parade we will see will be the one on TCM's broadcast of Miracle on 34th Street. Yes, we get TCM! Our sons will be back in California spending the holiday together with my niece Jill. "Face to face" with family and friends will be replaced with "face to Face Time."

But first, this weekend we will celebrate Thanksgiving with the American Society of South Africa at the Buitengeluk Estate in nearby Fourways. With turkey and all the trimmings ... including the best Thanksgiving trimming of all, Americans!

Plimouth Plantation

Instead of dwelling on how this Thanksgiving is different, I will try to focus on what has remained the same. We will not be home. We'll be roving once again. We will not be cooking turkey on Thanksgiving Day. We will celebrate with our (new expat) family and friends. And we will be very, very thankful for all of God's blessings on our family, including the opportunity to live abroad and spend Thanksgiving in South Africa.

Happy Thanksgiving, America!