When Is Thanksgiving?

Here is a link to a history website http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving, where you can find all kinds of stuff about this American holiday.

Also, for those of you interested in the topic, here is a link to the best top five Thanksgiving themed movies:

http://movies.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/thanksgiv111204.htm

I recommend ‘The Ice Storm’ , Woody Allen’s ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’ and ‘The Myth of Fingerprints’

Thanksgiving for turkeys

Did you know that… ?

1) Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in America, with a planned production total of 49 million in 2008.

2) The National Turkey Federation – yes, it exists! – estimated that 46 million turkeys—one fifth of the annual total of 235 million consumed in the United States in 2007—were eaten at Thanksgiving.

3) Nearly 88 percent of Americans said they had eaten turkey at Thanksgiving last year.

4) The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds, which means some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2008.

Amazing, huh?

Thanksgiving: A Stressful Holiday?

Thanksgiving celebrates tradition, family togetherness and good food but it can also be a very stressful time. There’s a lot of work associated with pulling off this feast, and with pulling together distant family and friends.

One of the first factors of stress during the holidays or get-togethers, is the high divorce rate.  With many marriages ending in divorce or even greater family complications by remarrying, children have to decide which family or parent they choose. The parents who get to be chosen need to work hard at proving themselves worthy, while for the parents who lost, it feels like a failure. So, a no-win situation for all the parties involved.

Many people only get to see their families – thank God 🙂 – at special events or celebrations. This is the time when you’re put under their microscopic eye to see whether you’ve gained or lost weight, have got any grey hair or need new glasses… Also, pictures are taken year after year to record our aging process faithfully and to remind everyone of that dreadful dress, hairstyle, etc. How’s that for stress?

Thanksgiving, like other holidays, is a celebration of food, which poses another problem. For those with eating disorders, it becomes really stressful; fo those who are on a diet, it’s a challenge akin to climbing the Everest.

This is also a time of the year for family members to talk about what has been going on in their lives, both personally and professionally. So this is the time when you are asked about that girlfriend who dumped you and about the promotion that never came. You don’t really feel like telling them and this, of course, causes stress.

Now, what do we do about all this? One possibilty is to swallow your pride, hold your tongue and just vegetate through the entire family affair silently reminding yourself that it will be over in a few hours… But remember, Christmas is just around the corner!

 

 

Adapted from Holiday Blues at http://www.brownielocks.com/holidayblues.html