Thanksgiving Israel Style
It ain’t no Norman Rockwell painting.
Thanksgiving is an American tradition. It is a holiday celebrated in the United States. I feel I must present the above disclaimer before I proceed further.
I also should mention that Americans are Americans are Americans. And just because we have lived in Israel for over twenty years, doesn’t mean that Thanksgiving isn’t engraved in our beings more than the Fourth of July and any Jimmy Stewart movie.
Our immediate family celebrates Thanksgiving every year as close to Thanksgiving as possible. You gotta remember that Thursday is a regular workday, so we have always moved it to Friday. Even when the kids moved out of the house, they would take leftovers with them. Just because there are less of us doesn’t mean you still don’t cook for thirty.
What my daughters found out was that their Israeli born friends always showed up after Thanksgiving for a taste of the leftovers.
Israelis are nothing if not curious. So, this year we had Thanksgiving dinner at Samantha’s in Tel Aviv and she invited a few friends.
Israelis.
We had turkey and yams and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce and stuffing and the whole nine yards. They loved it. We loved it.
The conversation was mostly in Hebrew and I envisioned ol’ dead Norman Rockwell spinning in his grave. I saw myself as an Indian, and the Israelis were the pilgrims, and I was having a tough time understanding what the fuck they were talking about. But I didn’t do too bad.
I ate until I was uncomfortably full, and then we had dessert.
We didn’t have a family football game….yet. And there was no football on television. But we did call one of my nephews on FaceTime to connect a little. Thank god for technology.
All in all, everyone had a great time and I’m sure we’ll do it again.
But now….what to do with all that garbage.
