Turkey Talk

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the colonies and of course that means remembering back to when these actually WERE the colonies. As we all know, Henry VIII sold America to a bunch of Indians for 3 strings of beads, 2 kingsized (of course) pumpkin pies and a turkey. With giblets.

And the rest is history !

Right now we're watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the streets of NYC, another tradition it seems. It also seems to be a showcase for Broadway shows, beloved cartoon characters, new movies and C list celebs but it's all done with the panache that they do so well here.

The balloons are huge and the stuff of more comedy B-movies than those starring Will Ferrell. Everything from Kermit the Frog to Spiderman, Charlie Brown to The Energizer Bunny are floating past the Macy's store, trying to break free and head en mass towards Washington, taking the country to DEFCON 2.

Here in normally sunny Buttonwood Bay, we usually watch the New York crowd with some degree of smugness as they're all wrapped up for this winter parade and we're enjoying the glorious weather that Florida is famous for.

Not so this year as it's an unusually cool 63F outside today and overcast. Still about 10F more than in NY but that's low on the smugness scale.

In a couple of hours we'll be off to our friend's house for the Thanksgiving meal. This year we're having spiral sliced ham AND turkey with mashed taters, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, home made gravy, roasted root veggies, home made buns, pumpkin pie and apple crumb pie a la mode. This will be followed by much belching and a short nap !

More tradition follows tomorrow with Black Friday, a day that takes retail therapy to new heights and most stores offer a few amazing deals for those who have camped overnight or stood in line for hours to be there at 5am when the doors open. This is one tradition that has been watered down over the last few years with the coming of internet shopping and now BF deals are available from the comfort of your armchair and have even been creeping back to being available a few days before Friday. Shocking. Is nothing sacred ?

And so it's the start of the Holiday Season and everyone will be wishing each other Happy Holidays from now till Jan 1st so that in this PC mad world, people of different faiths and beliefs won't be upset.

Sod that. I'm not PC.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends and I can tell you that in a few weeks time I'll be wishing you all a very Happy Christmas. Let's put it this way. If that upsets you, you won't be getting the greeting in the first place !