Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a very unique American holiday. When I first arrived in the United States I had heard of Thanksgiving, but I had no idea of what is was all about. We do not have Thanksgiving in the United Kingdom.

Over the years, I have grown to like the Thanksgiving holiday. It gives a few days off in the middle of the school year, but, more importantly, I think it is the last holiday that has not been ruined by commercialism. If you look at Christmas it has been ruined by rampant commercialization to the point that I doubt that a lot of people do not understand what Christmas is about anymore.

Yesterday, I spent the day with Irene and D’Argo watching “American football” and, of course, eating lots of turkey. I was perfectly happy to spend my day doing this. The thing about Thanksgiving is that it is a holiday where American families get together. Irene’s family are all in New York and mine are all in the UK and do not really care or know what Thanksgiving is so I am perfectly happy with my Thanksgiving.

The one thing I do notice is that when I tell people my Thanksgiving plans they are often a little shocked. They expect you to be with lots of friends and family and not just your wife and cat. They even suggest going to a local Thanksgiving dinner provided by some charity in town. I assume they do this so that Irene and I will not be alone. The point is I am perfectly happy with my Thanksgiving and certainly don’t want to spend part of the day eating food with a group of people I don’t know just so that I am not “alone.”

So I had a perfectly good Thanksgiving. We had some good food and I got to do nothing all day, which was great. D’Argo finally got to go out for the first time by himself. I do have some reservations about this, but he seems to be staying in the local area so he should be fine. We had wanted to keep D’Argo in the house but he wants so badly to go out that we have finally given in. He does seem to be an outdoor cat and hates to be kept inside. We have now had him for just over a year and he has grown into a very independent cat. He will be going for his annual check-up at the vet soon so we will see how his health is doing and, hopefully, his adventures outside will not harm him in any way.