Mommy, Are We Celebrating Thanksgiving?

England...America...England...America...England...Italy...America... Why am I listing these countries? To give you a brief glimpse in to my nomadic childhood. I changed schools 7 times; three times mid-year. I cannot imagine putting my kids through the trauma of changing schools AND countries.

Moving is hard for a child, but living in different countries is just plain confusing. Think about the holidays. Our family only celebrated Thanksgiving when we lived in America. In England the fourth Thursday in November was just another school day. No turkey. No cranberry sauce. No stuffing. No pumpkin pie. Ditto for Halloween, Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day.

Moving is hard under the best of circumstances. But, can you imagine moving to another country mid-school year? Leaving your comfy cozy home behind. Packing all your household furniture, clothes for the next season, and toys into a container ship bound for your new country. Flying to your new country. Arriving in your new "home" with suitcases filled with clothes, a few toys, and books. Waiting for all your furniture and possessions to arrive at your new home about 6 weeks later. Yep, this was my childhood.

My childhood Thanksgivings in America were even stranger when I recall that we celebrated Thanksgiving with other English families. Did we all wonder about celebrating a holiday that was not our tradition? Did the dads watch football? Did anyone think it confusing that in England soccer is football while in America soccer is well, soccer? My childhood was one of rolling with the changes.

I dressed up every Halloween while we were living in America, but never trick-or-treeted while in England. I chuckle at photos of my self dressed as Casper the Friendly Ghost, a firefighter, an Army man, and Fred Flintstone.

Halloween in England did not exist. The closest equivalent was Guy Fawkes Day -- November 5. As kids we would gather at school or at the house of a friend with a treeless backyard. The dads would build a huge bonfire out of logs. To my child's eyes, the Guy Fawkes bonfire was 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide. I suspect most bonfires were only about 10 feet tall. The moms would pass out treacle toffee -- a hard, but chewy black toffee that could dislodge a loose tooth -- while keeping kids from falling in to the bonfire.

The fun part was watching the fire slowly move up the bonfire engulfing the effigy of Guy Fawkes. The effigy was basically a stuffed scarecrow wearing a jacket and black hat. Guy Fawkes set out to destroy the House of Parliament in a foiled attempt known as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was tried and hanged for treason.

I became a proud U.S. citizen in the early 90s. While my children are American through and through, I want to pass on my English traditions to them. The Guy Fawkes bonfire is a little dangerous to me, but Christmas is another story.

Each Christmas before we tuck in to dinner -- I still slip up and call "lunch"..."dinner," and call "dinner"..."tea" -- everyone pulls a Christmas cracker with the person sitting next to them. I wish I had had a camera the first time my in laws watched the Christmas cracker pulling tradition. All of us sat wearing the brightly colored paper hats found in the cracker, laughed at the lame jokes or riddles, and played with the cheap toys contained in the cracker. In all the commotion, there sat my in laws gamely wearing their paper hats.

Turkey Day is fast approaching. Our family will head to the my in laws for a Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Later in the day we head to a more modest, store bought feast at the English grandparents. For our family, when in [fill in name of country] do as the [fill in name of a country's people] do.

When not pondering the differences in English and American spelling, Jill blogs about raising a kid, a preteen, and a teen at Musings.