I'm thankful for the same things as most other people are thankful for -- family, friends, love, health. And I'm especially grateful today to have spent every Thanksgiving of my life as an Italian Thanksgiving with the Italian relatives in the U.S. Most of the Italian immigrants from our familiy have passed away and I feel thankful to have spent the day with the last two of the honest-to-goodness Italians at their apartment.
We had wonderful antipasto, lasagna, turkey (which is the only American thing we do at Thanksgiving), and Italian desserts (semolina pie). And to remind us of our childhood, I brought along a DVD of Topo Gigio's (the Italian mouse puppet) greatest moments on the old Ed Sullivan show that I bought on EBay. Interesting, in one scene Topo Gigio talks about the president who at the time was John F. Kennedy! I wonder how many people on this site ever watched Topo Gigio or Ed Sullivan.
Anyway, I don't think I (or my 2 sisters) ever missed one of these Italian Thanksgivings in all my years and I'm glad our children are experiencing them as well. No matter what the ups and downs are every year -- some people die and others are born, some get along and some don't -- we all show up for the Italian Thanksgiving. And for this I am truly grateful.
And, of course, I'm grateful we have a place in SoWal and that I found this wonderful message board that always informs and inspires!