Being in Peru again to celebrate my first wedding anniversary, which was on November 11th (which we celebrated in the city of Arequipa), makes it the second time I have experienced Thanksgiving overseas. This will be my first Christmas overseas as well since we haven't celebrated it together in five years.
As you may guess by my lack of writing for most of November, I have largely been detached from the goings-on in the States, not having much to say about Trump's cabinet picks since the hard part of him winning the election is already over (of course, I felt the same way about his VP pick of JD Vance earlier this year), on top of a general dearth in creativity.
But since Thanksgiving was yesterday, as of this writing, I have the fact that Trump won to be thankful for, which gave me peace of mind for better or worse.
Unfortunately, Trump's cabinet picks have not been afforded that same peace of mind. <y friend Rick Moran detailed yesterday the numerous bomb threats and swatting attacks many of them, such as Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Lee Zeldin, and Pete Hegseth, have been subject to.
A bunch of weirdos decided to interrupt the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade by standing in front of it yammering about the ongoing "genocide" of Palestinians, meaning the justified destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel, but were thankfully arrested immediately by NYPD, much to the approval of everyone watching, as our esteemed Robert Spencer also detailed.
Victoria Taft compiled and mocked a bunch of Redditors for being callous, emotionally fragile, and insolent losers (although that goes without saying about Redditors) for whining about seeing their Trump-supporting relatives on Thanksgiving and refusing to go since Le Bad Orange Man won. Taft effectively reminded them that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about celebrating and expressing gratitude for the family that you have.
This is all not to be doom and gloom, but seeing all this stuff from a more detached perspective just made me feel that much more thankful for my in-laws, more than I already am. They not only treated me like one of their own from the beginning of our relationship but actually wanted to give me a Thanksgiving meal since they don't celebrate it here in Peru, it being an American holiday and all. It wasn't a traditional stuffed turkey (that's for Christmas in their family), but still turkey with arroz con Coca-Cola and baked potatoes (and a cake).
Still, how sad is it that people in the U.S. cannot celebrate a day of gratitude without letting politics interfere with it when my in-laws, non-Americans who aren't even exactly supporters of Trump, can? Don't these Americans I am talking about remember that plenty of people have it worse than them?
My friend Catherine Salgado reminded us yesterday that plenty of people in the U.S., such as the homeless, those without family, our troops stationed overseas, and those still struggling after Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, will not be able to celebrate Thanksgiving the way they want to this year, surrounded by those they love and with a big meal in a warm and cozy house.
