Thanksgiving is like a Japanese New Year “Oshogatsu” 
Well, the Thanksgiving day was on Thursday, November 21st this year of 2018.
This “Thanksgiving” is just like a Japanese New Year called “Oshogatsu”
Everyone is talking about “Where are you going to celebrate the Thanksgiving this year?”
or “What are you going to cook this year?” before Thanksgiving.
In stores, all the Halloween decorations are switched to Thanksgiving after Halloween.
We were invited by a couple who are close friends and living near our house this year.
We had a great time with them.
When did the American Thanksgiving become a holiday? 
There are some stories about this subject.
The best theory is Puritans who emigrated from England in the 1620s carried their tradition
of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanks for Harvest.
Way back then, Thanksgiving was one of the religious days when they prayed and thanked God.
And was lead by the church.
Hundreds of years after that in 1863, President Lincoln decided to make Thanksgiving a celebration
of the military success of the Union Army and for the bounty of war that they had won.
Many years later in 1941, President Roosevelt and the Congress decided to make Thanksgiving
a celebration for the Days of the Harvest on the fourth Thursday of November of every year.
So nowadays, it is always celebrated as a secular (non-religious) holiday.
Why do Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving? 
Everybody knows that we eat turkey on Thanksgiving day.
I was curious about why Americans, who love to eat beef or chicken, will always eat
Turkey on this day.
So I searched on the Internet.
As I wrote in the beginning, Thanksgiving was started by the emigrant Puritans as Days of Fasting.
Back then, they celebrated to thank God for the food which was cultivated and hunted.
In the beginning, they communicated with a Native Indian called Wampanoag.
Native Indians introduced deer meat to Puritans so they began to eat venison.
However, they could also catch wild turkeys because those animals were roaming about their villages
at that time.
So they could catch them easily.
Also, turkey is a very large bird so it can feed a table full of hungry family members after the three
days fasting.
Also, the turkeys didn’t serve a utilitarian purpose like a chicken laying eggs or cow making milk.
Unlike pork, the turkey wasn’t so common, so it seemed like a more suitable choice for a special
occasion.
That’s why people cooked Turkey on Thanksgiving.
For Americans, cranberry sauce is an indispensable condiment with roasted turkey.
Sugar was a rare luxury at the time of the first Thanksgiving.
The Puritans could easily take cranberries and it was familiar food for them.
So they made a sweet sauce instead of sugar.
Mashed potatoes and pies did not make an appearance at the first Thanksgiving because
they lacked the butter and flour need to make pie crust and mashed potatoes as well.
Mushed potatoes and pies became a popular dish in the 1700s.
From my point of view, this Thanksgiving day has a background story.
It is very interesting for me.
Menu for Thanksgiving day
I didn’t know so much about the traditional food for Thanksgiving day.
Just Turkey and mashed potatoes. Haha
I learned about many kinds of food which we eat on Thanksgiving while I have been
celebrating this holiday.
The traditional menu is
・Roasted Turkey ( Most people fond of white meat.)
・Mashed potatoes
・Cranberry sauce
・Gravy sauce
・Green bean casserole
・Mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows
・Green salad
・Corn bread
The green bean casserole was first created in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company.
Just mix boiled green beans, Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (concentrated),
and french fried onions.
It is easy to cook so this dish became popular food on Thanksgiving.
And dessert menu is
・Apple pie
・Cherry pie
・Sweet potato pie
・Pumpkin pie
・Chocolate pie
・Peacan pie
Everyone is busy preparing for Thanksgiving 
I was requested by friends to help.
So, I cooked mashed potatoes for twelve people a day before Thanksgiving.
So I went to Wholefoods to buy some groceries.
The supermarket was very crowded.
I noticed that many people were going to pick up their turkeys which they reserved in advance.
There was a cute Turkey decorated cake!
After shopping, I boiled 14 potatoes.
Then I made mashed potatoes from my own recipe.
Mixed with butter, salt, and milk.
On the day of Thanksgiving 
We went to one of our friend’s house this year.
They also invited their sons, their girlfriends, and some other friends.
After we toasted with wine, one of their sons sliced the turkey and served on a big plate.
Some other side dishes were placed on the counter, so we took food just like buffet style.
My mashed potatoes were very popular. I was relieved! 
Of course, after the meal, we ate pies!
Everyone was saying,” Wow, this makes me gain weight! But today is a special day so the diet
will start tomorrow!” 
They served Pecan pie, Apple pie, and Pumpkin pie.
After the great dinner, we played a game called “Pictionary”.
We divided into two groups, men and women.
Each team moves a piece on a game board formed by a sequence of squares, and with shaking a dice.
Then we moved the game piece to each square.
Then we picked a colored card.
For example, yellow is a person or animal, a light blue is an object and so on.
Then, we took turns drawing a picture and then guessing the word within a minute.
With the two teams racing to guess first.
The first team to reach the end of the board wins.
It was not easy.
Sometimes couldn’t understand what was he or she were drawing 
The Men’s team won this time 
We had an enjoyable and great time to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday at these friend’s house.
Well, I can’t wait next Thanksgiving!
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