A Thanksgiving Special

The United States is not the only country to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thank goodness for that. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays; I know what everyone is thinking, "that's because you're not the host Mary." Ha, well you have me there audience.

Gobbles!

Traditionally, I celebrate Thanksgiving in November on the fourth Thursday of the month. I help prepare the house with my mother. My dad is in charge of the yard work, namely the leaves, and also assists with cleaning. Year by year I've steadily increased my responsibilities until I was the sole person in charge of desserts as well as assisting with appetizers.

This year, I will not be joining my family in the States for Thanksgiving; this is the second occurrence of this tragedy. However, unlike France, I have a kitchen with an oven and access to North American supermarkets. So when November rolls around, I'll give myself a lil solo dinner for my second Thanksgiving dinner. Yup, Thanksgiving already happened in Canada. Remember audience, it's a bit colder up here.

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October; technically in the Atlantic provinces it is an optional holiday though many people choose to celebrate it because hey, banquet of food. Like its American counterpart, Canadian Thanksgiving's origins are not entirely clear; French settlers having a feast, Frobisher searching for the Northwest Passage, war against GB, etc. However, its purpose as a modern holiday is to be thankful for what you have and celebrate this with those whom you love. So, this past weekend I packed up my bags, and my cat, and went to Brockville Ontario to spend the holiday weekend with my relatives. All in all, it was an adventure.

My baby all buckled up.

The first day began with me driving to Brockville. Honestly the distance is not bad and takes about two hours. Well, being that it was the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend I underestimated the outbound traffic of Montreal. Three pluses from that experience:

1. The seats in a Chevy Cruze are quiet comfortable
2. I am a Chicago driver
3. Rogue is very good in the car

Sorry Canada but your drivers tend to be more timid and leave giant gaps between cars. Downtown traffic taught me to be more aggressive when lane switching; remember audience, I had my precious darling with me so I wasn't reckless just forceful.

Once out of Montreal, traffic was a breeze. I made it to my Grandma's house without trouble and found a handful of relatives waiting for me. That was a wonderful feeling of love.

Now, the rest of my weekend, Thanksgiving stuff excluded, consisted of spending time with Grandma, brewing tea, buying things, namely a mop and ironing board, for my apartment, hanging out with my cousin Ember, drinking tea, and listening to different viewpoints on the Prime Minister election while drinking more tea. No, I'm not registered to vote. And no audience, I will not tell you for whom I am in favor. That's a guarded secret that would surprise nobody. Back to Thanksgiving.

The Best Part

Saturday night, I went out to dinner at Boston Pizza with my Grandma, uncle Paul, uncle Lou, aunt Sheila, and aunt Bernice. I have never seen Boston Pizza so busy before. Then again, I often go with my brother when it's past normal dinner time. It was a bit noisy but that didn't stop our family from enjoying supper (uh oh, it's happening Dad) and conversation. Funnily enough, three of us ordered Hawaiian pizza as our dinner; though my aunt Sheila and I had bacon rather than ham. After dinner, we all returned to my Grandma's house for some traditional pumpkin pie. Though I am not one for sweets, I make an exception when it comes to pumpkin pie. What a great night and fantastic company. It was followed by another fantastic two days.

Sunday and Monday I spent time with my cousin Ember and her two daughters Keira and Chloe. Keira is seven and quite the hot ticket; man, that saying ages me by several decades. She is the most adorable little girl and like yours truly always has something to say. Chloe, who is four and super cute, is less social than Keira but opens up once she is given some time to adjust to new people.

Keira with Maggie the cat.

The four of us spent Sunday at the park and then retired to Em's home to watch a few movies. We ended up watching A Bug's Life which has my favorite Pixar short (Gerry's Game) and one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey; chess and Kevin, ah yes. The next movie was a Halloween favorite, Hocus Pocus. Em and I did have to assure the girls that Binx was happier as a human ghost than as a black cat; still they were upset when he died. Oh yeah, Spoiler Alert to anyone who hasn't seen one of the most iconic family Halloween films.

Damn she's cute.

The next day, Thanksgiving Monday, I returned to Ember's house for Thanksgiving dinner. This dinner consisted of a more classical meal; turkey, stuffing (oh the stuffing), mashed potatoes, cranberry jelly, gravy, rolls, and pumpkin pie all in one sitting. I was struggling to move a bit after two plate fulls of food but like every year, it was worth it. We then watched the Blue Jays while we digested our feast. I returned to my Grandma's with leftovers and chatted with my uncle Joe and aunt Maureen for a lil while.

The next morning I headed back to Montreal, Rogue in tow. She was a well behaved cat and enjoyed her time at my Grandma's very much. I can tell that she misses stairs, maybe I'll make some for her out of cardboard, but in time she'll adjust to the apartment. Everyone was fussing over her while I was there. I almost think they wanted to see her instead of me. Ha ha, I can't blame them, she's pretty darn cute.

Once I was home in my apartment I just relaxed. I enjoyed a movie, some ravioli, and my new flannel sheets and comforter. This place is slowly starting to feel like a new home.

And as Linus would say, "Happy Thanksgiving Charlie- I mean Audience!"