Happy Thanksgiving

So if  you're wondering how we celebrated Thanksgiving.. we didn't.  After years of trying to assimulate something similar to Thanksgiving, and always feeling a little disappointed at by evening, I decided a few years ago to stop celebrating.
 I had been a missionary for two months when I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in Ukraine. I was invited to a missionary's house, it's was sort of a friend of an aquantice thing, everyone there was married, homeschooling and living in sort a "little America", I felt totally disconnected from the group.
Then there were the years that I tried to do a tradtional Thanksgiving meal for my Ukrainian friends. Nobody really understoond dressing, weren't sure how to eat it with the sweet sauce, and in general it just wasn't the same.
Growing up Thanksgiving was a  big deal, all the extended family came got together. We had the traditional kids table and adults table, the whole day was spent grazing, watching football, playing games, napping and doing puzzles. Moat of us stayed the night, there were a lot of us and as kids we would sleep on the floor on stacks of blanket. For me Thanksgiving is about extended family. The fact that I'm far aways makes it hard. And it makes me homesick, which is something I don't experience much here.
So every year, I say "this year I'm not celebrating Thanksgiving" Don't get me wrong, I'm teaching my kids to be thankful, and our church has a holiday in September, where we thank God  for the blessing He has given us throughout the year. But I try to just forget about the last Thursday in Novemeber.

However, every year, before the sun as even risen on the New World, Ukrainians start calling me, texting me, congratulating me with Thanksgiving. About noon Andrey starts snooping around for the turkey, despite the fact that  I have already explained to him more than once "WE ARE NOT CELEBRATING THANKSGIVING!" But he will not be sustained. He loves to eat, and he loves holidays that are about eating, so about 2 pm he begins to make food suggestion, by 4 pm he starts offering to cook. This year, at about 9 pm local time, I told my kids the story of the first Thanksgiving and then we sat down to a meal of french fries and chocolate cake, compliments of Chef Andrey. It was nice, and somehow fesitive. And we had chance to verbalize everything we are thankful for, which turns out to be a lot,  especially considering that  A&M won yesterday !