Our first Thanksgiving

So this year was our first ever thanksgiving!  We didn’t really know what to expect because Thanksgiving really isn’t a ‘thing’ in the UK but we knew it would be a big deal here in the US.

We watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the kids in the morning and they loved seeing the balloons.  I had heard of the parade but had never seen it before – what a spectacle!  It seemed such a great show and was a starstudded event, including UK performers who seem to have ‘made it’ here and one of my favourite bands: The Barenaked Ladies!  It was also entertaining watching the artists miming to their backing tracks and pretending to play guitars with their gloves on…

Croissants, soup, shortbread and bread

We had a lovely family day after that, we took the kids to the park to burn off some energy (a necessity if you have small kids and prefer them not climbing the walls) and made some baking/cooking in the kitchen.  It was one of those nice days where we weren’t rushing about but the kids weren’t bored so they were fairly content and there were few tantrums.  Those days are very rare so I was certainly thankful for that!

We were invited to a friend’s house for dinner that evening.  They aren’t American so weren’t ‘celebrating’ as such but it was a lovely relaxed meal and the kids both behaved fairly well… aside from my son throwing toys around as he got more and more tired.  We had a lovely evening and my daughter loved hanging out with/showing off to the older daughters of our friends!

All in all, I really enjoyed Thanksgiving.  I love the idea of a holiday that doesn’t revolve around exchanging gifts and instead focuses on being grateful for the family and friends we have in our lives.  It also seems to signal the start of the run up to Christmas – the houses in our neighbourhood started putting up their lights and I could feel the excitement building almost as soon as the turkey was finished.  I can’t wait to see what Christmas in the states is like!

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