Turkey day!

Obviously there is no Thanksgiving here in Scotland, so life goes on today like nothing is happening. I sit here knowing that all my friends and family will be eating the BEST meal of the year, while I attempt to make some type of meager excuse for a Thanksgiving here. I will cook some turkey breast fillets, maybe a baked potato and some pumpkin pie... I will await a phone call from my parents wishing me a nice day, and passing me around to everyone who happens to be there while I am 4000 miles away feeling completely un-American.
Thing is, I have always been opposed to Thanksgiving for all the leftist political reasons (that we all know, so I won't go into it here), and it is ironic that I am missing something that I always detested. But is Thanksgiving really about the Pilgrims anymore? It is more about family and realizing what you have than the slow decimation of an entire race....
Earlier this week I had to go to the American Consulate in Edinburgh to get my SS card changed. As I walked up the hill, with Edinburgh behind me and Arthur's Seat in front, I saw the American flag wavering in the wind up ahead, Great Seal of the US above the door, surveillance cameras all around... I started to laugh hard, because all I could think of is that scene at the end of Not Without My Daughter where Sally Field says to her daughter after escaping post revolutionary Iran,"Mahmoub we're home!" Here it was, a little bit of the ol' USA in the midst of Scotland.... Of course the minute I walked in I was bombarded with pictures of the 2 things I detest about the US right now, Condi and George ..... but it felt like home: the metal detector, the "We will never forget" of 9-11, and best of all, GREAT customer service (something the Scots are not good at no matter how nice they are).
Do I miss the US?? Not really, just certain things- my friends and family, Sundays full of football games, good donuts, buffalo wings.... I mean who wouldn't?