"cjcampbell" wrote in message
oups.com...

Jay Honeck wrote:

(And to those in other countries, we'll try to eat some extra turkey and
dressing for ya today! *burp*)

Same to you, Jay. We miss you all.

Thanksgiving was yesterday here in the Philippines. We had dinner at
the mission home with the mission president and his wife and a couple
of missionaries. Not wishing to buy a live turkey and slaughter it and
eat it ourselves, we had chicken. It was not bad, though, and Jane made
a nice dressing.

The best part was that the pumpkin pie was made from squash. Back in
the old days, canned 'pumpkin' was Hubbard squash, which is why it came
out of the can solid as a brick, not all runny like real pumpkin is.
But they decided that you can't call it pumpkin if it ain't pumpkin,
so... heavy sigh. This pumpkin pie tasted just like the ones I
remember as a kid. Oddly, the Filipinos did not seem to care for it.
They went more for the carrot pudding. They also thought that mashed
potatoes were a poor substitute for rice. :-) But I think the holiday
could eventually catch on here.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in the Philippines, but they make a big
deal of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. No trick-or-treat. Instead,
everyone goes out to the cemetaries for a gigantic BBQ and they give
all the tombs a fresh coat of paint and decorate them with candles and
flowers. That is about as close to Thanksgiving as it gets around here
-- sort of Thanksgiving and Memorial Day rolled into one.

Are we supposed to be surprised that Filipinos don't celebrate Thanksgiving?
Remind me, is Thanksgiving not a US thing, strange that you know. I wonder
how many other countries don't celebrate Thanksgiving.