what are you thankful for?

So, spending Halloween in Israel (which I forgot was happening until the next morning) really didn't affect me so much. Sure, I missed out on some great partying and dressing up and other such fun, but you forget that the legal drinking age here is 18...Anyways, like Halloween, I also would have completely forgotten about Thanksgiving if it had not have been for the millions of status updates on facebook about it. But missing Thanksgiving was really difficult. 

Not that I didn't end up having a fantastic Thanksgiving. On the actual night, I went out with Pardes friends of Eliana's to Sushi Bar where I ordered chicken pad thai (LOVE pad thai and chicken is the closest thing to turkey at a sushi bar, but it was a mistake...next time just stick with the sushi) and ate a piece of apple pie for desert. Friday night I had Shabbat dinner at Shimon's and with Iris's amazing cooking which included cranberry sauce and turkey, I felt at least I had partaken in the food of the holiday. Also with Iris's family in attendance and sitting with Grumer, I even got the enjoy the awkward family moments which complete every holiday. It was also cool because I felt slightly adopted by the Felix's because I knew them better than the family did, so it also gave me somewhat of that homey feeling. Then for Saturday lunch, I went to lunch at friend's of Eliana's from Pardes (I'm adopting the title of being "the roommate" its really nice actually) and it was also lovely. We had more turkey and cranberry sauce and pumpkin and sweet potato pies, so food was taken care of and we played a fun mind game, "Contact," so even the family-time games were taken care of. Then last night we went to an American sing along (using Rise Up and Shine, the book) and it was actually quite a lot of fun. Singing some Jewish-y songs, but mostly American folk and "americana" songs that we all knew ranging from James Taylor to Bob Dylan to Ray Charles to Arlo Guthrie, etc, you get the idea. And it was so nice to sing songs about different states (Georgia included!) or American landmarks and ideals especially now as I have become more patriotic having spent time away from America.

But despite all of this, Thanksgiving is still a time for family and makes you remember all the traditions like making the turkey with my father and my mother's cranberry sauce. And that makes it hard to miss. But, here we have made our own little family and its nice that an American holiday reminded me of that.

During dinner on Thanksgiving (at Sushi Bar) we all went around the table and said something that we are thankful for. And I think that this is the first year that I basically said, the love from my family, the support from my friends, and how lucky I am that my life is so easy.