Holidays in a foreign land

One thing I have realized is that though I am obviously not living in Springfield any more, many bits don’t feel much different. I am not all too sure that it has fully sunk in that this is home, it still does maybe feel a bit like a vacation. There are some things I thought I would miss greatly and others that I didn’t think I would notice much. The odd thing of it all has been that if anything, my expectations as to which things would land in which category has practically fully switched. For example one such thing would be Halloween, I wasn’t massive by any means when living at home, my celebration of the holiday consisted of choosing the perfect pumpkin and creating a jack-o-lantern to decorate along with other festive decorations, so in retrospect I guess I was moderately active in the Halloween celebration. I was not however the type to dress up (not at all let alone provocatively like so many girls my age would) and go to the local pub-crawls or trick-or-treating. To many regards I didn’t like the holiday because it reminded me of loss, being that several people I knew had lost their battles with cancer mere days before this holiday and thus I was reminded me of them each year in conjunction with the holiday. So, my point to this being, I didn’t think I would miss this holiday much, but I am surprised by how much it has hit me. I think possibly because there is so little excitement around it here, and I guess, I simply miss that hype and excitement. I fear the same may prove it’s self true with Thanksgiving, a holiday that at home I disliked more than liked. I hated the food when so many people treasured. If anything at home I was more of a Scrooge of Thanksgiving.  There were many a Thanksgiving where I sat out the holiday festivities, I would spend the day at home alone, enjoying a day of TV marathons and full relaxation, eating the foods I liked, not all the turkey, stuffing, cranberry crap that everyone loved. I often felt as though too much of the focus was around food, I saw it as such a gluttonous celebration. I may have gone so far as to give a speech in my senior year at college in anthropology of this matter exactly; I recall many of those in my class giving me a glare of insanity as if I was somehow not American. Though there are a few things I absolutely love about the holiday, 1. The turkey trot, 2. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, & 3. Black Friday.  For anyone who does not know of these “Amy” traditions, the turkey trot is the annual 5k on the morning of Thanksgiving, it is usually cold, there are tons of people many dressed up as turkeys or Indians, and it is nothing short of fun! Then there is the best parade on earth (in my opinion, the wonderful Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and huge balloons flowing through the streets of New York City. And last but not least, is “black Friday” as I am sure many people love it because of the wonderful deals they get when shopping, I love it because I am the person working. We would go into work in the wee hours of the morning, usually around 4am, and open the doors as soon as we could, usually 4:30, the energy, the excitement, the pure thrill of the official beginning of the Christmas shopping, there is really nothing like it! So, with saying this, I am afraid that I may miss Thanksgiving more than I have anticipated. Though, my wonderful husband has agreed to get up on the morning (assuming we are both off work, if not, another morning) and run 3.1 miles with me, and if I am not at work, I will hope I might be able to find the parade on the television. I am not yet sure if a day of such chaos exists comparable to “black Friday” but I do know, many places are placing holiday windows and decorations out as I type this. I am excited to see which holidays they may celebrate here with more excitement and grandeur than we did in the states, or holidays that we may not have even known. We did carve wonderful jack-o-lanterns and I know that my non-American husband will do everything in his power to help me feel more at home in this country that neither of us are custom to.