Thanksgiving Memories from Long Ago

In the USA, this weekend is full of family, fun, shopping, and leftover turkey, of course. Thanksgiving weekend was always one of my favorite weekends when I lived in the USA. After I moved out of my parents house, I usually had travel by airplane to go and visit my family and anyone who has tried to travel near Thanksgiving knows how insane the airports are and how expensive flights can be. You see most Americans only get the Thursday and Friday off of work, but many people also take the preceding Wednesday off too.. in order to travel. I'm so glad I haven't had to worry about traveling for Thanksgiving for the past four years, but I am sad that I am again missing time with my family. I was able to speak with my family yesterday and wish them all a Happy Thanksgiving.

I remember my first Thanksgiving away when I had just moved to Norway and had only recently met my boyfriend. We decided to do our own Thanksgiving and invited his sister and her family who lived nearby. We bought a turkey, made stuffing, and had rice and gravy (for some odd reason this boyfriend of mine doesn't like mashed potatoes). At that time I hadn't yet discovered pumpkin purree in Oslo, so not pumpkin pie.. or as I prefer, pumpkin cheesecake. My second Thanksgiving away I was in Portugal, so no semblance to Thanksgiving that year. The third year I was back in Oslo and we had a Thanksgiving chicken, which is exactly what we're doing again in Iceland this year! 

Another part of Thanksgiving weekend that I miss is spending Black Friday with my mom. I know, I know.. but don't think that Black Friday just means vain, greedy Americans who only like to buy cheap things at others' expense.. though I have to admit that is part of it. Black Friday to some people has become more of a tradition, and that is what it always was in my family. I have memories of my mom going with my grandma and aunt when I was a little kid, and I remember going with my grandma and my mom. But for the most part I remember going with my mom. One year she lived out in the boondocks, so we first had to drive for two hours to get to a shopping center.. and that was to get there at 5am. Yes, we are crazy, but it's fun!

In my growing up years, we would always just go to the local mall. You could always tell who the locals were and who hadn't lived there very long. You see, Washington weather is very rainy and can be quite windy and cold at the end of November. But the locals knew that there was one door that was unlocked to the mall, so we all waited in the shorter line on the inside while the others waited in the rain - hah! Of course no one was going to tell those in the rain about the unlocked door.. best to keep that tidbit to ourselves.

After eating the turkey, we would map out our game plan. We checked out the ads and saw if there was anything we just had to have and then prioritized from there. I would usually coordinate with my friend so if she went someplace and knew I was going to go there later, she would call and tell me if they were already out of stock and such things as that.

But honestly, my mom and I never really bought much. It was more for the fun of the day. Sometimes you could find really cheap items. One year I got a free cashmere scarf from the GAP and a 99 cent (0.75 euro) cashmere hat from EXPRESS (a higher end store). Some stores give out little trinkets like snow globes, store credit, or discount coupons beyond what was offered in the newspaper. These usually run out within the first hours that the stores are open.. sometime within the first 15 minutes. 

Somehow I still managed to participate in Black Friday even when being outside the USA. It seems that this Black Friday "culture" has somewhat sneaked in to Norway. Yes, I know I'm not living in Norway anyway, but I will be going there for a day in a few weeks, so I had the opportunity to buy some things online. Anyhow, many of the shops I used to frequent in Oslo sent me advertisements via email on Friday morning. They advertised their Black Friday sales. Granted these sales were nothing in comparison to the sales you would find in the USA, but it's still nice (ah, a little bit of home) that they have some sales. It doesn't seem that Black Friday has come to Iceland yet.. though there were sales on Friday and Thursday.. they just weren't called Black Friday sales. Anyhow, I managed to get my Christmas shopping done due to these sales in Norway.. you see, while clothing and food items may be cheaper in Iceland, electronics are about 50 percent less in Norway. Go figure!