I like traditional Thanksgiving food. I used to really get into the events surrounding the food, but now it is just about the food. Unfortunately, fate over the past 11 or 12 years has made the food sometimes hard to come by (at least in its best form). Anyway, here are my Thanksgivings by year.

2004: in Wuppertal, Germany doing nothing Thanksgiving related. I said, in the previous post, that I was toying with cooking, but Birgit has a training thing this evening so it isn't worth it. Nothing sadder than eating Thanksgiving dinner by yourself.

2003: in Guadalajara, Mexico doing nothing Thanksgiving related.

2002: in Guadalajara, Mexico doing nothing Thanksgiving related.

2001: in Cuyutlan, Mexico having Thanksgiving dinner with the people who ran our little hotel on the beach. One of the owners is an American (his wife is Mexican) and we showed up just as they were preparing dinner. We were the only guests that night, so they said we should join them. It was pretty cool.

2000: in Texas having Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, brother, and aunt. This was a bad time since my brother sucks in lots of ways, my dad was recovering from his recent near-fatal accident, my aunt is a bit of a loon, and my mom was zonked out on pain pills. AND it was Texas. I gave thanks for my car, which got me out of there.

1999: in Alabama having Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and other kin at my aunt and uncle's house. It isn't a bad thing to be with my extended family in general, but I hate what happens with meals. Basically, you've got me, my brother, my parents, my aunt and uncle, their six children, their spouses (4 had spouses in 1999), and the rugrats (8 of them in 1999). This means that a proper sit-down meal is not possible, and so the day is spent feeding from a trough, before retiring to sit in front of the TV. I've got a weird thing about cafeteria-style eating, so this sucks the life out of it for me.

1998: in Alabama having Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and other kin at my aunt and uncle's house. The Trough. See 1999.

1997: in Germany having Thanksgiving dinner with Birgit and coworkers from the embassy. That was sort of odd. I worked, most of the time, at the grocery store. I had lots of friendly contact with an older fellow (retired Army intell guy) who worked as an embassy courier (he had security clearance so they liked him) and was married to the IRS person responsible for all Americans living in Europe. Anyway, this guy invited me and Birgit to their place for dinner. So it was the IRS honcho, a retired Army intell guy, an Air Force colonel (the attache) and his wife, and Birgit and I. Good food, odd atmosphere.

1996: in Germany having Thanksgiving dinner with Birgit and our friends, one of whom was an American who hooked us up with the turkey cooking. That was pretty cool. Good food, good folks.

1995: in Alabama having Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and other kin at my aunt and uncle's house. The Trough. See above.

1994: I'm not sure where I was for that. I'll bet it was Tulsa, Oklahoma (where my parents lived at the time) or Alabama for the Trough.

1993: in Germany having Thanksgiving dinner with fellow exchange students at a thing put on by the university. The Korean students brought Korean food, and it was way better than the turkey. It rocked.

1992 and all previous years in Alabama with the parents and brother or the gang of us in Florida with kin. These were all sitdown affairs. One exception: one year we went to the Creek Indian Reservation in Atmore, Alabama for some sort of festival which rocked hard. It was the greatest Thanksgiving ever!