Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey all, Happy Thanksgiving!  While you are all getting hopped up on triptophane and watching football, I'll be working trying to call companies in America that are clearly closed aka playing on perezhilton all day.  

In general news, I got a cell phone two days ago and have 200 free minutes to America for landlines and mobiles!  I'm very excited.  I talked to Liz last night on the phone to test it out.  She asked how things were going (other than the ranch dressing of course), I told her how I made the office buy coffee because the tea they have here is very scary and different to me.  What is white tea, fennell tea?  So I found a french press in the back of the kitchen and have made the office a little more american.  Liz told me how excited she was about thanksgiving dinner with the whole McKiernan clan today.  That got me thinking about past Thanksgiving over the years.  

Years ago (when there were only a couple of grandchildren and Mike, Liz and I were in our glory with the amount of spoiling we got), we spent it at my grandma's big house where my mom was raised, usually sitting on a piano bench because we didn't have enough chairs (the event yielded a crowd of about 15-20 people and 1-2 dogs depending on who was born at the time), watching my uncle Jim parade in a different girlfriend every year and judging them based on what kind of puzzles they did with Mike, Liz and I, and having jump on uncle Tom time right after dinner (which looking back was probably super painful for him).  Then when g'ma moved to her 2 bedroom apartment that is perpetually 85 degrees ("Mrs. Seinfeld, can you PLEASE turn on the airconditioning!") with the same 20 or so people and 1-2 dogs, it gave a new definition to the idea of family togetherness.  Last year's Thanksgiving was definitely an interesting one...the first one I did with just my friends.  It was clearly a first for many of us with the turkey that just wouldn't cook (it took about 4 hours longer than we thought- never let a man who says "oh yeah trust me I've got this under control" be in charge of anything).  At least we had many many many bottles of wine and the musical stylings of dean martin to keep us entertained.  And then this year too something different with new friends.  

Of course there are the constants: the thanksgiving day parade, turkey, over-eating, football and good times with friends and family.  One of the british people I work with asked me what Thanksgiving celebrates.  Thinking back to 4th grade social studies, I told her "well, it celebrates when the pilgrams and native americans first came together to enjoy a meal...and then we killed a lot of them, but now they can have casinos and not pay taxes so everyone wins!" At first she was confused but then realized that they celebrate a holiday here of the day that two warring parts of the country came together for a break in the war to play soccer, and then the next day they fought again.  Crazy brits.  But really, everyone knows Thanksgiving celebrates the kick off to the season were you expect to gain 5-10 pounds, you spend too much money, and you get to see all those relatives who don't really know who you are (yes JMac I'm talking to you...I'm your cousin.  Even if I only see you twice a year and am 20 years older than you, we are related and I still know your name).  So anyway, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!  I miss you and love you all!