For our family, one of the most enriching aspects of living in many different countries has been to participate in local holidays and special traditions. Our favorite adopted traditional holiday is Thanksgiving. What is unusual about this is that we are an Argentine family who began celebrating an American tradition in Tokyo.
The first time we lived in Japan, our eldest daughter Natalia, then two years old came home from her playgroup at the American School and wanted to know what we would be eating for Thanksgiving.Her teacher had told her that it was a very special holiday and that it was celebrated by eating turkey (not that she was quite sure what a turkey was all about) and all sorts of other delicious things. As I began a complicated (for a two year old) explanation about how we did not celebrate Thanksgiving because we were not American, I thought to myself, "so what!" and made an instant decision to have a celebration. My husband would be away on a business trip at the end of November so that would leave just the two of us to participate in the festivities. Her baby brother Steven was nursing at the time so he would not really be one of the diners. Well, not directly although we did place him in his bassinet at the table.
Natalia helped me to decorate our dining room table for two plus baby with fine china and lovely wine glasses - she insisted on those for her apple juice. We shared mini portions of mashed and sweet potatoes, cranberry relish,and the piece de resistance was a Cornish Hen which I told her was a "baby Turkey!" She was very satisfied with our dinner and more delighted yet when I told her years later about our experience that first Thanksgiving together.
Since then, Thanksgiving dinners have included more and more family members. Her brother Steven grew to look forward to our celebration and was joined by sister Marisa who was born a few days after Thanksgiving in 1977 making it an even better reason to celebrate. When we moved to New York in 1978 and a few years later our only American born baby Alexandra joined the family, we were glad that we had acquired some experience in the celebration of "her" holiday. Their father never went away for Thanksgiving again and while he didn't do much cooking, he always made sure that we had a few bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau for this lovely harvest festival and insisted on going out for a chilly walk after we had consumed massive amounts of food.
Every year, we go around the table and everyone shares what they're thankful about. As my children and our guests make their speeches, I often think of that first time. I think about how enjoyable it was when we all lived together in New York. The holiday was preceded by a visit to Arthur Avenue with Fran to stock up on all the food for our respective celebrations and while the kids watched the Macy's parade on TV I cooked like a fiend and delighted in the wonderful smells emanating from my kitchen. I remember our Thanksgiving partners Margie, Paul, Joanna and David. I remember the sights and sounds and I am filled with gratitude for having had the best possible partner anyone could wish for and for having invited these four children into our lives. Now I am thankful for their partners and their families and the beautiful babies they've brought into the world to delight us all.
Our family has grown and so have our turkeys since that first miniature one in Tokyo. For us, an adopted tradition has acquired a very special significance. We claimed it as our own without letting minor details like nationality or origin discourage us from celebrating the true meaning of this special day which belongs to everyone.
