Happy Thanksgiving!

No, my American friends, I'm not insanely early on my Thanksgiving felicitations. Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada. The motto of my American family is, "Any excuse for a party!" so we'll be having a small dinner tomorrow night. The usual treats--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and an apple pie. (Yes, for those of you who know me, I did write "mashed potatoes." I've discovered I actually like them...if they have sour cream, cream cheese, garlic and parsley in them...)

One thing Americans like to ask me is why Canadians have Thanksgiving. After all, I'm told, we didn't have the pilgrims. And, while I remind them that the New World included Canada, and thus we had our share of pilgrims come here, I guess it's not the same. They weren't the Plymouth Rock pilgrims, who got to share that lovely meal with the Indians. Or something like that.

I won't speak for all my fellow Canadians, but growing up, Thanksgiving in our family was simply about being thankful. Grateful for the blessings of family, food, home and country. That doesn't change when you cross the border. I'm still thankful for family, food, home and country, and so tomorrow I will celebrate what we've come to call in our family "First Thanksgiving." The American half of my family didn't seem to like it when I referred to Canadian Thanksgiving as "Real Thanksgiving" and American Thanksgiving as "Fake Thanksgiving." So now we have "First" and "Second" Thanksgivings.

And, if you weren't aware that Canadian Thanksgiving was at a different time, don't worry. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why all the American stations put their Thanksgiving specials on so late, or why there was snow in them. Because, no, it's not snowing in Canada. Yet.