I thought I'd start out by giving everyone a run-down of the history of Thanksgiving. The credit for this info doesn't go to my elementary school teachers, but to the History Channel. Yes, from time to time, I do watch the History Channel. Hey, you actually can learn something on TV!
Abe Lincoln was the President to declare the first official Thanksgiving in 1863, however, Thanksgiving started long before that.
1619- Virginia settlers say thanks when they arrive at the Berkeley plantation.
1620- English settlers wahsed up to Plymouth, Massachusetts and gave thanks to God. Unprepared for the harsh winter, only 52 settlers survived with the help of Squanto, a Native American man.
1621- Fall settlers invited the Natives to New World Harvest Home. It was a party of Thanksgiving prepared by the only 5 surviving English women.
1777- George Washington declared the first Thanksgiving across all territories and it became the tradition to delcare Thanksgiving Days whenever something great happened. (I still think this should happen so that we have multiple Thanksgivings throughout the year. The downfall? I guess we'd all be a lot fatter.)
Sarah Hale (the very first Martha Stewart) was an editor of Godley's Lady's Book, which was the most widely circulated publication at the time. She encouraged everyone to unite their efforts and asked the state governor to delcare Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November. After all her efforts, Abe Lincoln finally declared the first official national Thanksgiving Day.
Above, homemade apple cider wasail.
Ok so, now onto 2009. I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family in the East Bay. My grandparents and cousins came over, and it was great to have everyone together, smiling, and spending time together. There was a lot of food- turkey, mashed potatoes, yams (which I made), homemade pumpkin pies, brussel sprouts, chinese sticky rice, vegetables, etc. I even rolled spring rolls from scratch! It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I did it successfully after a few broken rice skins and mutilated shrimp.
Below, my Vietnamese spring rolls that I so proudly rolled after 10 initial failures.
To the left, the feast. Playing mah-jong
My brother, Michael's, homemade ratatouille from the movie "Ratatouille"
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Hopefully you got to eat yummy food and got to spend some good time with your loved ones. And, as previous settlers used to do, let's all celebrate Thanksgiving not just once a year, but everyday, as there is always something to be thankful for.
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