Thanksgiving week...

There is no holiday more American than Thanksgiving. The 4th of July may be close, but every country has its holiday celebrating its own creation. Thanksgiving is different - it is a nation pausing once during the year to give thanks for what it is blessed to have. This should involve the thanking of a Deity, but such backwards notions are frowned upon in modern America. Thanksgiving has become each family being thankful for what it has. That's OK, I guess.

You might wonder what an American who is living outside of the US does when a uniquely American holiday pops up on the calendar. Well, since I work for an American company I actually get Thursday off. Noah has school and no one else is off of work, so it is really different from being at home.

Last Thanksgiving Kathy and I spent a couple of hours at the Museum of Communism, learning how life was different in the Czech Republic during the dark times of Communism prior to 1989. When we left I felt very thankful that I was born and raised in the US.


This Thanksgiving Kathy and I will be visiting the museum in Lidice, which is just a few miles from our house. I will post separately on Lidice after our visit, but Lidice (German: Liditz) is a village just north-west of Prague which, as part of Czechoslovakia, was completely destroyed by the Germans during World War II. On June 10, 1942, all 192 adult men from the village were murdered by the Germans, and the rest of the population deported. I went to Lidice with Kathy's family when they were here, but Kathy was not able to come. The museum and grounds are so well done that I wanted to go again with Kathy. Not exactly a "feel good" activity, but again a good way to be reminded of how easy we have it and how little we really have needed to sacrifice compared to others.

At 5:00 on Thursday we are meeting friends at a local restaurant in Nebusice (where Noah's school is) for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We are looking forward to it very much. When we get home, probably about 8:00, I plan on unbuttoning my pants and watching the second half of of the early NFL game on my satellite. Not the same as Thanksgiving in the US, but pretty close.