> > It is obviously a National Holiday along the lines of Easter or Christmas, though not based on religion, but started by the Founding Fathers celebrating for still being alive in a hostile foreign land having only been there a few years. (Or something like that.)

And, in Canada, we have it the second Monday of October. Which makes for the first long weekend of the school year, and allows for some celebration before the snow flies.

> If you were in my house about 15 years ago, you didn't eat dinner until 8 p.m. because your mother turned off the oven when she went to baste the turkey, and then forgot to turn it back on. That's always a fun story to tell.

At our house, the oven blew up. Pretty messy. We ended up having chile cooked on a camp stove, and consigned the oven (turkey, and roaster intact) to the dump. I was little, but I have a crystal-clear memory of my parents handling the whole situation calmly. I was especially impressed by my Mom's serenity under stessful conditions (my Dad's parents were there - inlaw stress!), and I try to emulate that now in a crisis. It's also a fun story to tell!

> Ell"Oh, and a lot of people put up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving"myruh

te "Up here, we start carving the Jack o'Lanterns" ach