A first time for everything

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Thanksgiving this year was inevitably a strange one. I was very excited to share it with new friends, none of whom knew what thanksgiving was all about. I don't think I had the best explanation of this highly evolved holiday. I like to say it was a utopian couple of days when the "pilgrims" and "Indians" lived in peace, after the Indians kindly saved the remaining pilgrims from dying. More or less immediately after the first Thanksgiving was over the pilgrims set to spreading disease to the Native Americans, and generally killing them in any other way possible.
But, it really is a great holiday. I was able to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade via live webcam feed on Times Square. It was the best way I've ever watched it, as it was completely without annoying commentary and periodic broadway performances. I could see the baloons, listen to the bands, and watch Santa arrive in peace.
I got up early and for the first time made my Mother's stuffing and also for the first time put it into a turkey, and then also for the first time proceeded to cook it. It was really a monumental day for me. When I was a kid, by the time I got out of bed, the turkey was already in the oven, and on Thursday, I regretted having never watched my Mother make the stuffing. I realized that I had no idea how it was supposed to look before it was cooked. I also realized that I had less hesitation about intubating a cadaver than when I went to stuff the turkey.
Anyway, it cooked, like magic, and by the evening everything was coming together. Potatoes on the stove and apple betty sizzling in the oven. When my friends arrived I had them make "hand turkeys." As none of them live in a country where a holiday is completely turkey based, I think they actually had fun doing a 2nd grad project. I also annoyingly had everyone say what they were thankful for.
When I went to cut the turkey, I felt like I had just married it, as everyone seemed to want a picture of me weilding a knife in its general direction. Cooking turkey, okay, carving turkey, a whole other problem
The next day I was very glad that black friday doesn't exist here. I could walk around freely without any insane holiday shoppers trampling me. Although, as Christmas creeps in closer, the shopping here has gotten a little hairy.

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