BECK BULLETIN

We are on a journey, sojourners on this earth. Let us share with you the highs and lows of our lives. Heaven is a sweeter place now that we have two beautiful granddaughters waiting there for us.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy American Thanksgiving..so what's the big deal?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family and friends!

Because Dave is an American and two of our children married Americans,
we continue to celebrate thanksgiving twice in our family,
once in October with our Canadian family and friends,
and then again in November with our Americans.

But for our Canadians they just don't get it.
So what's the big deal about Thanksgiving in the USA?
Why can Thanksgiving Dinner only be on Thanksgiving Day?
Why do they get four days off to celebrate and only one day at Christmas?
Why does everyone try to get home for Thanksgiving?

Yesterday in talking with a fellow American transplanted to Canada I heard him say,
"Thanksgiving is my favourite day of the year"!
When asked why, his reply hit home.....
"Because it is all the good things about Christmas, family, food, enjoying one another,
without the worry about whether or not they will enjoy their gifts".

And suddenly I knew the answer....
So what's the big deal?
It's a day set aside for family, food and football(yes that's part of American Thanksigiving Tradition)
without all the trappings of Christmas
the gifts that need to be bought, the perfect decorations, the ridiculous amounts of baking...

...and it is time to be thankful!
So today Dave has taken the day off as he does every year
to revel in being an American even though he has lived in Canada for the past 40 years.
And tonight we will get together with our Can-Am kids,
Jamie and Megan and their boys,
who are all Americans by the way,
and celebrate American Thanksgiving Canadian style,
and we will miss our other Americans, the Texans,
oh and of course our lone Canadian family, 
the northerners,
Happy American Thanksgiving, one and all!

2 comments:

Anneliese said...

I think American Thanksgiving kind of steals the thunder for Christmas, but hey.. it's better to be thankful than worry about gifts. That's for sure!
Enjoy your turkey today. We are having rotisserie chicken, if that counts and I dropped off a warm apple pie for that fellow American transplanted in Canada. =)

Amanda Barkey said...

We do two thanksgivings too! I wouldn't have understood before living here but now I do. My husband grew up on a missionary base in Peru with an American mom and Canadian dad so they had two growing up and we continue that tradition. Now I actually think its a little weird celebrating mid October but we still do :) now Black Friday... I'll never understand that one!