Thanksgiving may be over, but we’re grateful that the holidays are just beginning! Feel free to continue to surf the great articles on Happy Thanksgiving Magazine year round with new content coming in November 2012.

You can also check out our recently-launched Happy Snowman Magazine for more holiday-happy reading. Crafts? Recipes? Decorations? Family anecdotes and coping strategies? We have all this and more through all of December, so make sure to stop by and check it out!

Photo credit: Sugar Daze

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday. It has deep roots and meaning concerning food, family and the social bonds that unite us all. We also get a heavy dose of the Pilgrims, native Americans and the meal that celebrated another year survived.

In our modern America, we don’t often die of scurvy; we’re not sick due to lack. Particularly when it comes to food, many Americans are eating themselves to death. Unfortunately, this holiday celebrates gluttony like no other. Many people take pride in unbuttoning their pants after a meal to allow their bloated insides room to expand.

This, to me, goes against the roots and tradition of Thanksgiving. Years ago, I finally put all the pieces together. My wife’s children were in town and I asked them if they wanted ham. Yes was the answer. Turkey? Yes! Mashed potatos. Yes. Pie? Yes. On and on they went agreeing to everything I mentioned. I reminded myself that they eat very well when they visit. They crave higher quality, nutritionally dense food and the satisfaction that comes from scratch cooking done with love. That is Thanksgiving. Food is a part of all holidays but what we crave is being full, not eating till we’re bloated. We crave the satisfaction that comes from community and familial bonds as much as good eating.

Years ago, I had one of the most memorable Thanksgivings ever. I decided to do the master cleanse for three days before hand. I would shop, prepare and cook the whole meal while not eating solid food for three days. I did so and, as I went through the cycle of food shopping and cooking, I pondered what it is to live in a society of such affluence. The grocery store contains halls of mass consumption. People starve around the world and we have so much food people can get fat in America.

We spend a disproportionate amount of our income on food. Meaning we spend small amounts of money on poor quality ingredients and eat processed, packaged meals. We need quick, easy, microwaveable meals because we’re so busy but we forget that sitting down with loved ones at least 3 times a week is what makes life tolerable to begin with. Family farms are in danger as monocultured factory farms and concentrated animal feeding operations raise crops and animals in poor conditions not fit to produce the animal welfare needed for healthy food nor the conditions that make the public want to see for themselves how their food is produced and delivered to them.

My choice that Thanksgiving was to stop eating. Three days. It’s not much, not as hard as you think, particularly while having my tasty lemonade.

I prepared roast turkey, roasted  garlic mashed potatoes, deviled eggs with smoked salmon and capers, steamed green beans tossed in a nice olive oil and garlic vinaigrette, and fresh baked honey yeast rolls. For dessert? Sweet potato pecan pie with homemade crust. All of the food was from scratch, even if I got the ingredients from large chain stores. The first step is the knowledge of where the food comes from. Don’t run away from it.

The one allowance I made was that, with each dish, I allowed myself to taste to make sure it was seasoned appropriately. Just the tiniest amount to make sure it was just right. Just a dab. During a cleanse, your senses sharpen; my sense of smell was like that of a bloodhound on the trail. Oh, the smells and sights of fresh food!

I broke the cleanse by sitting down for Thanksgiving. I ate with my loved ones and had what for many is a moderate portion of each of the dishes. I felt full; I felt warm around family, hearth and home. I’d done what we do as Americans–embrace freedom. The freedom to choose how we celebrate.

I celebrate abundance from time to time by stepping away from it all, by choosing to limit my caloric intake to savor the abundance around us. I feel this was one of the first times I truly honored the holiday and gave thanks.

Photo Credit: faith goble

In the fall, our thoughts turn to gratitude. It’s harvest time in the temperate and sub-tropical zones, and the fear of starvation if it fails is deeply embedded in our cultural psyche. It is a time to count our blessings and articulate those things for which we are most truly grateful. Everyone has their own list, of course, but I want to tell you about an extraordinary group of people who are very close to the top of mine.

In June 1995, I became pregnant with my first child. I was 33 years old and had been living in Winnipeg with my husband for about a year. I was far away from family and friends and had not yet developed a support network in my new home. Facebook did not yet exist, but I had been keeping in touch with my distant people using ancient Internet modalities such as Usenet and mailing lists. I joined a few pregnancy newsgroups, and then I heard of due-date lists – a set of mailing lists for people who were due in each month of any year. Google was still in the future, but Alta Vista did the trick and found me a due-date mailing list for March 1996, which I promptly joined. I had no idea that this minor waste of my employer’s time would be one of the most significant acts of my life, and lead to some of the deepest gratitude I have ever known.

The emails started coming in. It seemed like a mildly interesting group of people – several couples expecting twins, either naturally or as the result of exhausting and expensive fertility treatments. Most of the members were Americans, but there was a smattering of people from around the world – Canada, Iceland, Israel, Australia, Scotland, England and Belgium. The demographic was fairly heavily skewed towards academics and computer geeks. The youngest moms were 23, the oldest 45. We traded morning sickness remedies, worried about prenatal tests, argued about natural birth versus epidurals. It seemed just like any other special-interest Internet group, and we did not expect it to last more than a few months after the babies were born. After all, what would we have in common then?

The first babies, the twins, started coming in January. Being so premature, they spent time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and we all worried together. Suddenly, the letters on the screen represented real people, with real pain that we could feel. Not all the preemies survived, and not all parents stayed with the list. Many people dropped out of sight in the newborn haze. Some returned later; quite a few did not. As more and more babies came into the world, we scanned our email eagerly for the latest news. Some of us breastfed, some could not, some chose not to. The Mommy Wars raged – breast versus bottle, daycare versus stay-at-home, attachment parenting versus cry-it-out. Crazy people tried to dictate the course of the list, necessitating some harsh decisions on the part of the list owner.

It should have been enough to tear us apart, but a funny thing happened. We stuck. March96 is still going strong, nearly 16 years after its inception. We have experienced all the vicissitudes of life together – tragically, one young father died shortly after his daughter was born. Divorces, remarriages, births of younger siblings, the teenage years of older siblings, the care and eventual loss of aging grandparents – we have been through all of it together.

When my second son was born with a major birth defect, the love began to arrive in the mail – gift certificates appeared out of the ether, with cards signed by people I had never met. That love helped me through those dreadful weeks in NICU, the operations, the fear and worry until we knew that he was going to be fine. Several of our members have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and we have been there through their treatments. We have our share of disagreements, but we have learned how to deal
with them – on the religious front, our spectrum spans Evangelical Christian to Roman Catholic, Reform to Orthodox Jewish, Muslim and every kind of unbeliever. Our political range is similar. We have learned that some subjects are best not discussed on the list, just as in any family.

The love and friendship of this group is incredibly deep, especially since some of us have still not met face-to-face. We do try to have periodic get-togethers, but not everyone can get to them, especially in recent years with the troubled world economy. Our current members range from Iceland to Australia, from Saudi Arabia through Belgium and Scotland to the Pacific Coast and Hawaii, from Canada down through the Midwest to Florida and the very tip of Texas. While most of the remaining members are women, we do have some courageous dads who have stuck with us from pregnancy to impending menopause.

One of the many beautiful things to have come out of this group is the independent deep connection that has grown among the children, now 15 years old. We set up a mailing list for them a few years ago, and they do use it occasionally. True to their status as Millennials, their real communication occurs via texting, Facebook and Skype. As we have all become sisters and brothers, they see themselves as siblings or cousins, and they know that they have family everywhere. I could send my child to a family in Houston or Brisbane that I have never met and know with complete confidence that he will be loved.

For that, as much as anything else, I am truly grateful. May we be blessed to love each other for many more years.

Photo Credit: Betsy Bailey

On a cold November morning in 2004, a lone Marine stood off in the distance, his lips pressed to a brassy Bugle.  The melancholy notes of “Taps” carried over the white cross tombstones of Arlington cemetery, along the grassy hill, up to the black clad crowd.  Seven marines in full honor guard regalia, stood with their guns at their shoulder.  The final notes drifted off into an unsettling quiet. We stood there in the cold November morning, to honor the life and service and bury my cousin Joel Cajudo.

Joel was the first relative that I came to know and love.  He was enlisted in the U.S. Navy and he joined directly from the Philippines, just like my father. He arrived at our house in a forest green Volkswagen Sirocco, with light tan highlights that accented the trim.  Joel wore bell bottoms, a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the first few buttons not buttoned, and aviator sunglasses.  He was the coolest person I had ever met.  That I was only six at the time didn’t matter, to me he was the coolest of cool. I was in awe of him.

I remember using him as a “horse” and he would take me and my brother and sister for rides around our living room in Atlantic Beach, Fl.  He had the easiest smile that made you feel important and comforted you like a gentle embrace.  He didn’t visit often, but whenever he did he would take us places, and always played with us and made us laugh.

As the years passed he started a family of his own and we grew out of touch.  At the time of his death they were stationed in Europe. My family eventually settled in California as more of the clan was able to emigrate from the Philippines. We received a shocking call in the middle of the night that Joel passed away. One day he woke up with massive head pain, and turns out he had an aneurysm and died. In a great testament to who he was and the lives that he touched, he was able to qualify for burial at Arlington with a full honor guard.

Standing there at Arlington I looked out surveying the landscape before me. The Pentagon loomed in the distance and I could see construction still in progress. Repairs were still ongoing on the section that was destroyed by the airliner on 9/11.  A haze grey Seahawk helicopter took to the air from grounds of the Pentagon. That was where LT Tolbert died.

It was strange to see the place where LT Tolbert died while at the funeral for my cousin. In the midst of the horror of 9/11, seeing the towers fall on CNN, trying to make sense out of nonsense, I made sure those that I knew in New York were safe.  It wasn’t till years later did I find out that LT Tolbert, my former division officer, had died in the attacks.

The Pentagon wasn’t the only reminder of the 9/11 attacks that weekend.  Dozens of my family boarded a plane in Long Beach, CA and flew out to Maryland to bury our beloved family member. When we first arrived in Maryland to attend the wake, we were introduced to David Beamer, father of Todd Beamer.  David Beamer attended the same church as my cousin and his family when they were stationed in Maryland. I shook Mr. Beamer’s hand not knowing what to say, but in my head I wanted to thank him for his son’s sacrifice. But the words didn’t come out.

On 9/11 LT Tolbert was standing watch in the Intelligence Section, when the plane hit the Pentagon. A former shipmate relayed the news to me years later. One moment people were working in the Pentagon, reporting on what had already happened in New York, and then the world exploded. Many people remember sitting at their desks, then the next moment waking up on the lawn outside of the building, looking at a fiery gaping hole in the structure. The Intelligence Watch Desk took a direct hit. LT Tolbert died instantly.

I stood there at Arlington among the graves of countless heroes who gave their lives to their country. My cousin Joel was being buried here after giving the nation twenty-four years of service. The façade of the Pentagon still bore the scars of the terrorist attack that took the lives of hundreds, including a former boss from my Navy days.  Several hundred feet away the eternal flame burned in honor of the burial site of President Kennedy. Inscribed in stone, below the eternal flame are some of President Kennedy’s immortal words. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  Gratitude and pride welled up inside me, thankful for my cousin, thankful for men like LT Tolbert, thankful for our lives. I stood there with my Father, a man who himself spent his life serving the United States. These men and women knew the answer to President Kennedy’s challenge.  Joel did too.

The final notes of “Taps” played.  The seven marines, hoisted their rifles to their shoulders. Each Marine looked resplendent in their white caps with the leather bill, black jacket with gold buttons that shined even on that overcast November morning and the pristine white cloth gloves that held their rifles pointing to the sky. Three volleys of gunshots cracked the air, each shot echoing over time. 21 guns, saluting my cousin Joel.

Joel, you are my hero. I am forever in awe of you.

Photo Credit: Beverly

In my last post, we looked at the simple act of saying ‘thank you’ for our meals. “Saying Grace” or “Staying Grateful” is one of the easiest and most useful steps along the path to a lifestyle of gratitude. Some key concepts from that post are important to remember:

The word thank is based on the idea of good thoughts or to think and feel gratitude.

The word gratitude comes from the same root as ‘gratis’ – free, unearned, undeserved.

When we show gratitude for things, we begin to release the bonds of expectation and worry. Instead of focusing on our past failures, we begin to focus on our glorious present and our potential future.

Our next step is similar to the first in that it’s grounded in something we all probably have a cultural awareness of – even if we may have never participated in the activity itself. When I was very small, my family did not attend church. I never learned the little prayers that are so adorable coming out of little kids’ mouths. I didn’t even know what praying was. As I got older, I would read the comics in the newspapers, and see images of small children kneeling at the side of their beds and asking for things. I began to think that nightly prayers were a version of the list for Santa – the only difference was that you got to ask all year long!

Fast forward almost three decades.

Some close friends of ours have a two-year-old daughter. Every night, before bed, they have a ritual of saying ‘thank you’ for everything that she enjoyed throughout the day. It can be as simple as a food she likes (grapes) or an activity she enjoyed (bouncy – aka the trampoline), or even a person. It normally comes out a bit like: “Thank you grapes, thank you bouncy…” And it is quite possibly one of the most precious things I have ever witnessed.

Every time she says ‘thank you’ and thinks about something to be thankful for, we relives the experience all over again – normally smiling, giggling, or even squirming with delight.

I have so much to learn from her.

My nightly reflections are more frequently a litany of things that I do not have, that I think I need. I often forget that even if I didn’t get what I asked for during the day, often I received precisely what I needed. I also remind myself that I need to conscientiously receive the good things that are being offered to me on a regular basis.

So, in this journey of cultivating a more grateful lifestyle, our next step is to participate in nightly reflections.

If you are spiritual, feel free to make this part of a prayer, but this is possible even without a spiritual worldview.

Practice: “Nightly Reflections”

Purpose: Acknowledging those things during the day that have brought us joy.

Nightly reflections can take many forms:

• Keep a journal – Each night, before you go to bed, form the habit of writing down the things that you have seen and experienced during the day. I have written in a journal for over two decades, and I never cease to be amazed at the things I discover when I re-read what I have written. When you write things down, they don’t have to be eloquent or fancy – but if that’s what you enjoy, go for it! The practice is designed to help you draw your experiences out of your head a bit more clearly. Date your entry, then write down whatever details stand out for you. Mostly, emphasize the things that made you smile or laugh. If someone said something that you loved, if you saw an inspiring image – anything that improved your quality of life for even an instant (perhaps someone at work brought you a cup of coffee?) – these are the things to highlight. Why did they mean something to you?
• Say a ‘prayer’ – While this activity is certainly easier if you believe in a deity, you are not disqualified if you don’t. This is simply a practice of verbally acknowledging that you are not responsible for the whole world, that you received things during the day that were ‘free’ or that didn’t come from any sort of compensation. The best things to identify in something like this are those things that are out of your control, but that improved your quality of life. Appreciate the weather, the traffic (or more likely lack thereof), something beautiful that you saw, or people in your life. You can say either “Thank you for…” or “Today, I appreciated…” Either way, you identify that you appreciated them, and you are also expressing your willingness to receive them again – a great affirmation to make every day!
• Partner up – Find a friend that you can commit to meeting with each day or evening in order to express those things that made a difference to your day. This doesn’t have to take hours, it could be as simple as a quick text message. Invite this person to hold you accountable for finding at least one thing to be thankful for each day. It’s always easier to do these sorts of things together.
• It’s better together – If you have a roommate or a domestic partner, it can even be a powerful relationship building tool. Don’t limit your gratitude to things left outside the home. Instead, include one thing that the other person has really met some need of yours. It can be something emotionally significant, physically impressive, or even something domestically satisfying. Nothing says gratitude to me like a clean kitchen! There’s a phrase in my faith tradition that says something along the lines of ‘outdo one another in showing love for each other.’ By being thankful for one another and expressing it on a regular basis, we are showing love in a consistent manner.

Each of us is different, so if one of these steps seems simply impossible, don’t attempt it – yet! Take whichever step you believe you would be able to accomplish consistently. Whatever you choose, I hope that you will be able to take a baby step forward in cultivating a lifestyle of gratitude. Each step leads you closer to the tipping point, so keep at it and know that I’m grateful for each one of you!

Photo Credit: Katie Sturm

Preparing Thanksgiving dinner is challenge enough without small kids running around! A little advance preparation can keep children busy while you are cooking and help them understand what all the fuss is about. Allowing your children contribute to the celebration gives them a greater connection to the family and friends you will be having over, boosts their self esteem and creates lasting memories. When young children understand why we celebrate Thanksgiving, it gives meaning to the holiday.

Cook With Your Little Chefs

If you have room in your kitchen, let your children help cook. Cooking is a great way to spend quality time with your children and teach them new skills. Young children can stir, mash, tear bread and crack eggs. Even three year olds can use a plastic knife to cut vegetables; many will sit for a long time doing this. There are tons of fun Thanksgiving treats to make, kids will enjoy helping with these as well. Every year my kids love making, and eating, dessert Pilgrim hats. I think they still think I invented it!

How to Make Pilgrim Hats
24 chocolate-striped shortbread cookies
12-ounce package of chocolate chips
24 marshmallows
tube of yellow decorators’ frosting

Set the chocolate-striped cookies stripes down on a wax-paper-covered tray, spacing them well apart.
Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave.
One at a time, stick a wooden toothpick into a marshmallow, dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate, and promptly center it atop a cookie.
Using a second toothpick to lightly hold down the marshmallow, carefully pull out the first toothpick.
Chill the hats until the chocolate sets, then pipe a yellow decorators’ frosting buckle on the front of each hat.

Be Crafty

Children love to decorate the house for Thanksgiving. There are tons of easy crafts kids you can make with them – the classic handprint turkey and paper bag turkey are popular preschool projects. Keep the best crafts from year to year; kids love to look at their work from years ago and see how much they’ve grown. I love to take my kids out on a nature walk and let them collect pine cones, leaves, sticks, acorns, pods, whatever tickles their fancy at the moment. At home I let them choose from an assortment of baskets and bowls, put in some raffia and pour their finds on top for personal and beautiful fall centerpieces. This activity also gets the kids (and possibly your spouse) out of the house for a while! Leaf garlands, of real or store bought fabric leaves are a beautiful way to decorate doorways.

Read Books Together

Books are a great way to help young children understand the story and meaning of Thanksgiving. For the youngest children, the board book What is Thanksgiving? by Michelle Medlock Adams encourages us to give thanks for what we have. The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving, by Ann McGovern is a simple, beautiful book introducing the Pilgrims and their first Thanksgiving in America. Thanks for Thanksgiving, by Julie Markes reminds us of the small things we should enjoy every day.

Give Thanks

Cultivate an attitude of gratitude! Invite a few new people to your Thanksgiving dinner this year. Maybe there is a new family on your block or at your kids’ school. Think of someone you would like to know better and make a phone call. Your children will note your hospitality. Let your children see you thank the sales clerk and the waitress. Talk with your kids about the things they are thankful for, things they are really glad they have and would not want to be without. Remind children of the intangible items they have like family members and pets, and experiences they have had like camping, or a trip to the beach. During Thanksgiving dinner, go around the table and say one thing you are thankful for. Make a game out of it by having each person repeat what the others said before adding theirs.

Reach Out

It is important not only to be grateful for what we have and to help those who are less fortunate, completing the circle of thankfulness. Young children can pack bags of groceries to bring to the food bank. This year, more people are relying on food banks than ever before and the need is great. Serve food at a local shelter or bake for an elderly neighbor. Churches, schools and synagogues are great places to ask about service opportunities.

Fun for Dinner

Have entertainment on hand during dinner to help your children stay in their seats a little longer after their mashed potatoes are gone. Printable coloring pages are easy to download and print. Set out a few craft items like playdough, feathers, sticky back foam shapes, markers and construction paper and let their imaginations go wild. Kids love to cut out magazine pictures and make collages. Set up a small plastic table or use a plastic tablecloth on the kids table to keep mess contained. Give each child some time with a digital camera and let them be in charge of documenting the event. Older children can download and print the kids’ photos before the guests have even left! Young children love stringing – set out plastic needles threaded with yarn or floss along with cranberries, corn kernels, wood beads, popcorn and o-shaped cereal.

Enjoy!

Most of all, enjoy the day. Keep Thanksgiving light-hearted, make it a priority not to get too stressed. Nobody will notice if something has not been done or the rolls are grocery store takeout. Have guests bring side dishes so that you have less cooking to do. Believe me, nobody minds; in fact they are glad to have something to contribute. Create a festive mood with decorations, games and even costumes. Put aside family arguments and differences, just for today. Give your children the gift of warm Thanksgiving memories.

Photo Credit: Dana Willard

It’s that time of the year that everyone asks me, being the wine expert I am… What wine should I serve with the bird for Thanksgiving?

I put together this handy guide which I hope you will find useful.

What to serve with the bird

The big question – which wine or wines go with Thanksgiving Dinner?

Other questions to ask: Do I want one wine for the whole dinner, or several that pair with each course – appetizers, turkey and sides, dessert? Do I want red or white wine?

If you want one wine to take you through the gamut, a good choice could be a sparkler.  Champagne and sparkling wines are not only for special occasions and celebrations. Gloria Ferrer Vineyards makes a nice sparkling wine; it is reasonably priced and accessible at most liquor stores.

If you opt not to serve the sparkler, here are some other ideas…

RIESLING: a nice white wine that can be dry or fairly sweet,
excellent with any dishes that are spicy, salty or sweet.
{Pronunciation: Rees-ling}

Here are a few suggestions in the $10 range:

• Yalumba Y Series Riesling (Austalia)
• Dr. Loosen Riesling (Germany)
• Firestone Vineyard’s Select Riesling

Sauvignon Blanc: This is a crisp white wine, easy drinking, light to medium bodied.

{Pronunciation: saw vee nyon blahnk}

A few suggestions:

• Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand)
• Beaulieu’s Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc (California)

The LAST WHITE WINE I’d like to suggest is my favorite…..

VIOGNIER!  (vee oh nyay)

Viognier is a nice white varietal.    Try it, you’ll like it.
If not – give it to me – I will finish it for you.

• Elk Cove Viognier Willamette Valley (Oregon)
• Hogue Viognier Columbia Valley (Washington)
• Pride Viognier Sonoma County (California)

RED  WINE suggestions…………….

Certainly one cannot talk about Thanksgiving food & wine pairing without mentioning:

Beaujolais Nouveau: A light, fruity red wine, from the Gamay grape, it goes quite well with turkey and all of the fixings.
*This wine is ONLY released from France on the third Thursday of November.

{Pronunciation: boh jhoe lay noo-VOH}

Les Vins Georges Duboeuf & Louis Jadot are probably the largest purveyors of Beaujolais.

If you chose not to serve Beaujolais Nouveau then Pinot Noir is a good choice!

Pinot Noir: This red wine is a traditional favorite for Thanksgiving.

It is smooth and silky, with subtle aromas.
{Pronunciation: pee noh nwahr}

Vineyards that produce nice Pinot’s: (and you should be able to find…)

• Argyle Pinot Noir Willamette Valley (Oregon)
• Elk Cove Noir Willamette Valley (Oregon)
• Beaulieu Vineyard Pinot Noir Napa Valley Carneors (California)
• Estancia Pinot Noir Monterey Pinnacle (California)

Zinfandel:  A fuller bodied red wine that ups the intensity from a Pinot Noir.
~ A great wine pick for those looking for a heartier red wine.

Zins to consider….. That may be simple to find:

• Cline Zinfandel Sonoma Valley
• Frog’s Leap Zinfandel Napa Valley
• Steele Zinfandel Mendocino County

AND of course — if you happen to open a bottle of wine & don’t care for it
this is what you do with it…………Make Sangria!

http://helentdiehl.posterous.com/tasty-sangria-everyone-will-ask-for-this-reci

Often, because of the conceit of youth and a perspective blind due to time and distance, children never fully fathom the sacrifices of their parents.  As a first generation Filipino-American, the Philippines was just a distant land that my parents were from.  My understanding shifted irrevocably in December of 2009, when my family went to visit the Philippines.

It was my first time in the Philippines, the land of my parents.  Everything was new to me.  The smells of burning trash, diesel fumes, and street food.  Highly decorative silver Jeepneys motored around transporting people in mass. Barefoot homeless street kids in oversized ratty shirts, businessmen from Korea, tourists from America, and college kids in uniforms walked the streets together.

The myriad socio-economic contrasts were startling.  Driving around Manila, one moment you might be in concrete canyons flanked by skyscrapers,  and then the next moment you are driving through some of the poorest slums you have ever seen.  The history and culture of the land is such a confluence of past occupations and influence.  It’s not so much American, as it is Spanish, as it was Filipino. It was overwhelming to experience.  One day during our trip, I went exploring Manila on my own.

“You are one of the lucky ones,” my taxi driver said to me.

I was sitting in the back of a white taxi cab weaving through the manic traffic on the streets of downtown Manila in the Philippines.  Gripping the wheel, he maneuvered through Manila traffic as if I were a spy and the security forces were after me.

“Lucky how?” I ask.

“You were born in the States.  Ninety percent of all the people in the Philippines want to live in the States,” he said. “You have more opportunities; you have so much in abundance compared to us. You are one of the lucky ones.”

After seeing the Philippines for myself, I finally began to understand just how lucky we were. But  I didn’t do anything to be one of the lucky few,  I was just born there.  My Father was the lucky one.  My Father made our luck.

My Father grew up in the shadow of a World War in a small coastal city called Olongapo. Olongapo city was on the outskirts of the Subic Bay U.S. Naval Station in the Philippines.  Hundreds of years ago, the Spanish founded the base because of the natural shelter of the bay and its deep water harbor.

Raised in a bamboo hut, he was the youngest child out of seven brothers and sisters.  Before the Japanese Invasion my Grandfather worked at the Naval Base with the Americans helping to build and repair ships. My Grandmother was a diminutive woman, and she helped the family by washing the uniforms of the Americans.  What little she made, she put away to eventually buy land for her grandchildren that weren’t even born yet.

During the war, money was scarce and the food was even more so. To feed the family each of the children had their duties.  The older brothers had to do rigorous labor in Japanese work parties, so finding food fell upon the young children. My Uncle Danny’s job was to go to the nearby rice fields and scrounge for rice. One of my Aunts walked miles to nearby towns to barter for items that the family could in turn barter for food.

My father was the family fisherboy.  Each day, before class or after class, he would make his way down to the ocean shore.   He would set traps made out of bamboo to capture a local crustacean called Atla.  Digging in the sand, my father would look for clams as well, and even try to grab fish with his bare hands.  Whatever he caught was the family’s dinner for that night. If he didn’t catch anything, they didn’t eat.

After the war, my Uncles Nard and Danny went to work for the Naval Shipyard and my father joined the Navy.  As part of the great relationship between the Philippines and the United States, the U.S. Navy offered Filipino nationals the opportunity to enlist.  Many signed up on the promise of a new life and the hope of eventually becoming a U.S. citizen.  Out of thousands, my father was one of the chosen few.  He was the first of my family to serve in the U.S. military, and the first to migrate to the United States, but not the last. Shortly after my father enlisted, four of my cousins joined as well.  All in all, over ten members of our family, including myself, have served in the U.S. Navy.

During the early 1950s and 1960s, Filipinos were only able to have menial jobs as stewards or cooks.  All the other job ratings were closed to them.  Years later the job ratings started to open up. Some of my cousins were supply clerks, engineers, operations specialists, airmen, and even held Top Secret clearances as intelligence specialists. Currently, my cousin Noel is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy.

Because of my Dad’s service, my siblings and I were born as U.S. Citizens.  Eventually, because of their employment at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Subic, my Uncles Nard and Danny were able to emigrate with their families to California. The Navy has been good to my family.

My family’s story is our own, but it is not unique to the American experience. Each Thanksgiving, every American is reminded that we owe our way of life to the first pilgrims that came to America on the Mayflower.  And every Thanksgiving, every American should remember that every one of us owes a debt of gratitude to an ancestor who got onboard a ship, a plane, walked over a border, or traversed an ice land bridge. We all made a pilgrimage to the USA in one way or the other.  We are all immigrants.

In September 1620, 102 brave souls left England on a ship named the Mayflower–a three mast vessel made of timber and pitch.  The Mayflower opened their canvas sails and caught the Westward winds for the promise of a new life in the New World.  In September 1960, one brave soul left the Philippines for the promise of a new life, in the New World. His ship wasn’t the Mayflower, it was the USS Willis, a frigate in the U.S. Navy. Everything my family has, everything we are, we owe to the U.S. Navy and my Dad the pilgrim.  Thanks Pops.

Photo Credit: Ville Miettinen

How do they go back in time? They have a magic tree house. Whenever they visit the tree house they are transported into whatever book they are reading at the time. So when they bring a book about Squanto and the Pilgrims into the tree house, they end up visiting Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims are busy preparing for the first Thanksgiving. It has been a hard year, but their harvest is in, and they want to give thanks with a three day celebration. Jack and Anne are eager to help, but there are no grocery stores or modern kitchens in 1621. They make lots of mistakes and are afraid they are going to ruin Thanksgiving for everyone. But Squanto helps them learn what they need to do and the Pilgrims show them that you can still be thankful even when things don’t turn out perfect.

What I enjoy about the Magic Tree House series is not just the great stories. These books give you an accurate look at the subject. In Thanksgiving on Thursday you learn how the Pilgrims lived and what their day-to-day chores were like. You also learn about their dress and their customs. Reading an entertaining story instead of a dry textbook is a fun way to gain knowledge. But what if children want to know more?

There is a companion book called Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #13: Pilgrims: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #27: Thanksgiving on Thursday. This book has all the facts that were used in the story and a lot more. I love reading these Fact Trackers because, even as an adult, I learn so much. And children often have questions adults never think to ask. Why did the Pilgrims choose Plymouth? What was life like on the Mayflower? Did they eat turkey on Thanksgiving like we do? All these questions and much more are answered in this book. There are photos, illustrations, and trivia from Jack and Anne. It is a fun way to learn more about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

Do you want to learn more about the Magic Tree House? Check out their website: www.magictreehouse.com.