Dear Friends and Families,
As an American expatriate, I have always found the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving to be the hardest holidays to miss. Both have no heartfelt resonance with non-Americans, although Hollywood has made certain every movie fan in the world has heard of them. Nowadays, it is harder than ever to wave the flag in July or any other month. That's a shame, because we should. But Thanksgiving, that's another story.
This year, we set a pair of tables for several friends: Americans, Germans and a couple Germany-resident Brits. This would be the biggest group we had ever entertained in our little house. As is her practice, Marianne fussed for weeks. She says she enjoys it, and that's a good thing. Ordering a whole turkey required significant advance notice to our town meat store and clear instructions about size, shape, gender, and clothing (no feathers, feet, or head.) Tracking down sweet potatoes made us think that, next year, it will be easier to simply grow our own.
Eventually, it was all prepared: turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, cranberries, apple and pumpkin pies.
And friends filled the house with laughing. Nothing could have been better. So, now that we have introduced Thanksgiving, I hope the world is getting along better in six months, so we can have a real, American, Fourth of July. You're invited.
John and Marianne