09 December 2004 - Thanksgiving and Zack's Birthday

In November, Uncle Tim visited from Minnesota, so now the only one of my brothers the boys haven’t met is Uncle Geoff. But that’s okay, because Uncle Geoff and Aunt Norma are visiting in early February.

In Ukraine, all adult men are “Uncle,” and all adult women are “Auntie,” so it’s interesting for the boys to learn about “real” uncles and aunts. Their sense of being connected to a family grows all the time, and it’s very important to them to stress “Daddy’s brother” when talking about some uncles.

November also marked the boys’ first Thanksgiving. They’re still a little bit too young to understand the history and meaning of Thanksgiving, but they’re plenty old enough to understand having lots of good food. They helped prepare the turkey (wearing improvised chef’s hats that Uncle Dan made for them), and had their first taste of pumpkin pie. I keep stumbling over things they haven’t done before—even though I know intellectually that they’re new to American culture, it’s still a surprise when I discover something they’ve never experienced.

At Nicky’s school, as part of learning about Thanksgiving, each child had to think of the one thing he or she was most thankful for. Nicky wrote down “food.”

Zack’s birthday party (Wednesday, 01 December 2004) was a blast. He was so excited the night before his birthday that I thought he’d vibrate himself to pieces. I didn’t have the heart to make him wait all day to open presents, so on birthday morning he got to open one package, chosen at random. It turned out to be a truck from Uncle Geoff and Aunt Norma, and he absolutely adored it. That set the tone for the entire day.

After school, he opened another package, then we got busy decorating the house. Since we’d just gone through this with Uncle Dan’s birthday, the boys knew exactly what to do. We blew up balloons, strung ribbons, got out the party plates and napkins, and brought in extra chairs.

When I was growing up, the family tradition was for the birthday boy to choose the food for the birthday meal. I thought it was an excellent idea when I was a kid, so the tradition continues. Zack chose McDonald’s, which kind of violates the tradition (one is supposed to choose a meal to be served at home), but since it was his first time, I let it slide. We ate at McDonald’s, then came home for the party.

Aunt Judy and her two children came, and so did Uncle Steve. Zack turned five among family and friends, and smiled continuously for at least two hours. He got more presents than I ever did!

Poor Nicky tried very hard to be happy for Zack and help him celebrate his birthday, but he kept looking at the calendar for his own birthday and counting the days. Since the party, he’s casually mentioned several dozen things he’d like to be given as birthday presents. I keep telling him he has to wait to find out what he’ll get.

“Me no like surprises,” he said.

Just wait, little guy. I bet you will!