Thanksgiving Day is annual U.S. holiday, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, to commemorate the Pilgrims’ celebration of the good harvest of 1621. Violeta Tzoneva and Boyan Nikolaev sent us greetings from the US and share a Thanksgiving Day experience.
In 1621 the new settlers who had arrived in 1620 from Europe, had their first Thanksgiving feast with the local people in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims thanked God for the good harvest and thanked their new friends for their friendship and help in their new home. Four centuries later we are in a somewhat similar situation. Like the Pilgrims, we came from Europe and like them we are full of thanks for our new American friends. We had the possibility to experience Thanksgiving Day with an American family.
Beth Herbert, a teacher at Hamilton High School where Violeta works as a Fulbright exchange teacher in 2004-2005 school year, invited us to join her family for Thanksgiving dinner. Beth told us that all of her children would be home, so we were very excited. We have already met Molly, Beth's youngest daughter, a 7th grader, on a hike and we know that Beth has 6 children and two of them have graduated from Hamilton High School and are successful college students.
When we pull up at 2 p.m., Beth welcomes us from the porch and right at the door stands a man who welcomes us in the Russian language. We are surrounded by the children and two more guests. Next, we are taken to the living room and sit on the sofa. We tell our new friends where Bulgaria is, tell them about the Cyrillic alphabet, about our capital Sofia and with the Russian speaking man we communicate in Russian. Actually, this is John, Beth's husband, who studied Russian about 40 years ago when he was in the army. We join the group of eight who have been watching a movie with Tom Hanks. Right after our talk about Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, suddenly we hear somebody speaking Bulgarian. It turns out it is Tom Hanks. In the movie he is translating for an American security officer at the airport while he is helping him to interrogate a Russian man who has tried to smuggle some medicine. For about 10 minutes we are exposed to English, Bulgarian and Russian and we are very proud as out of all ten people in the house we are the only ones who understand what is happening in the movie without any captions. The movie is called The Terminal; its director is Steven Spielberg. and Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones are in the cast. Tom Hanks plays Victor, a resident of Karakouzha, a fictional ex-Soviet Bloc country on the Balkans. He comes to the USA to meet a jazzman in New York City and ask him for his autograph. Victor finds himself stuck at one of the terminals of the airport as after the collapse of his nation's government his visa becomes invalid. We recall that the American actress Rita Wilson (Margarita Ibrahimoff), Tom Hanks' wife, has her family roots in Bulgaria. We mention her hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding and we feel Tom and Rita almost family.
At 3 p.m. we start eating the traditional "feast" with turkey and all the trimmings. Each of the girls has prepared her own specialty - Molly has made the mashed potatoes. Shane, Matt and Sam have put up the outside Christmas lights. The table is set with the roast turkey, stuffing, roast ham, pickle, olives, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, and celery with peanut butter, bread, and butter. We all take turns and say what we are thankful for. Beth and John's kids are thankful for their faith, family and for the possibility to be together. Kate lives and works in Washington, D.C., and Shane is pursuing his doctoral degree in pharmacy. After the dinner with turkey, John and their son Sam leave about 4:00. Every year they go to San Diego for the weekend to referee a soccer tournament. We watch The Terminal to the end. Then Beth and Molly take us outside to see their orange tree garden and the playground. We pick oranges and learn that they will be juicier and riper in December. It is a family tradition to make a jigsaw puzzle on Thanksgiving Day. So Sarah, Shane, Kate and Molly work hard and complete a puzzle with the monument of the Presidents at Mount Rushmore.
Later, while we are eating the traditional pumpkin pie and the Bulgarian tikvenik (pumpkin pastry), prepared by Violeta, we all take turns and talk about our work and our plans for the future. Molly tells us about her gymnastics practice and she spreads the quilt that Beth and Kate have made. Kate was on a gymnastics scholarship at Stanford University and now Molly is the next gymnast in the family. Molly, although she is the smallest child, is the musician of the family and she plays both the piano and the flute for us. Matt and his friend from college Bill tell us about their courses in biological engineering and how hard and challenging it is to pass some of the tests. Sarah is impatient to start her teaching practice in a couple of months as a 6th grade teacher and Kate tells us how she teaches NGO people to raise money for their projects. Kate is hugging and kissing Molly all the time while we are talking and we also notice how supportive everyone in the family is towards each other. Matt praises Molly twice for her beautiful playing, he also praises Sarah for completing the jigsaw puzzle, and all children thank their mother for being such a wonderful mom. In recognition of their pride in their mother they designed a special T-shirt for her and presented Beth with it for Mother's Day in 2001. From the T-shirt we learn that Sam is the President of the Student Council of his Junior High School and everybody agrees that he will make a good politician -- why not even a President of the USA or of the world. We feel very optimistic about the future of the USA while we are listening to the stories of these young people. They all have set their high goals and are working towards their achievement. And they enjoy what they are doing.
On our way back in the evening, we decide to find out how far Beth's house is from what we imagine is Chandler. Well, it turns out Beth is in Chandler but still her home is 8 miles away from Hamilton High School, and the school is practically out of the central part of the city. So, apart from everything else our visit to Beth's family gives us an idea how fast Chandler is growing, something we have known until now only on hear-say basis. Of course, some 15 years ago those faraway places were just farms in the town's common. But then, in those days Chandler had less than 15, 000 inhabitants, now they are much more than 200, 000, and their number is growing every day.
Though we were with eight Americans on Thanksgiving Day, we gave our thanks to all our American friends for their hospitality and friendship. Most of them sent us e-mail messages, e-cards, gave us greeting cards and some gifts or just wished us a happy Thanksgiving. Our first Thanksgiving Day in the USA was a lovely day, really, filled with good smells and happy times.
