HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving from Greg, Shelly and Mister Tanaka!

I had forgotten, from my three years on Guam, how un-Thanksgivingly Thanksgiving feels in the tropics, with the sun shining, the air warm and the pool beckoning. It's even less like Thanksgiving when you realize that, aside from fellow Americans, nobody even realizes that today is a holiday at home, when families are gathering and, at least where I'm from, enjoying a chill in the air.

In Japan, there were enough Americans in Yamanashi that we'd get together, along with a few rogue Brits and Canadians, for Thanksgiving on Japan's Labour Day (which was, in late November, close enough to Thanksgiving to be the perfect day to celebrate). Turkey was hard to find -- and harder still to fit in a miniature Japanese oven -- but we always managed to find some tasty ham or something and most of the fixings for a big potluck. Plus, in Yamanashi, it was cold, so it felt like Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving on Guam was sort of like home, but mostly not. Being part of America, we had big, air conditioned feasts with turkey and stuffing, along with local favorites like fried rice or kelaguen (a delicious, spicy Chamorro salad made with chicken, beef or, my favorite, octopus). And if the feast was followed by a trip to the beach and some snorkeling in the bay, who was I to complain? I never said cold was good.

So to wake up this morning and wish Shelly "Happy Thanksgiving" on a decidedly non-Thanksgiving-like day was, to say the least, odd. I'll make it seem like late November by fixing a dinner that approximates a much scaled-down Thanksgiving dinner from home, with some chicken, a chilled pumpkin soup and some corn or string beans, depending what's in the refrigerator. In fact, the pumpkin is roasting in the oven right now.

Our real Thanksgiving will be on Sunday, as part of our obligatory housewarming/pool party. Depending on my ambition level on Friday and Saturday, I'll make a couple pumpkin pies (from scratch, as I can't find any canned pumpkin or frozen pie crusts at the stores), mashed potatoes, stuffing and, if all goes well with the cold pumpkin soup tonight, some more of that, all topped off with a sort-of smuggled turkey from home.

Myra asked me on Tuesday why I wasn't having the party catered. On Sunday afternoon, I'll probably be asking the same thing.

But it wouldn't have been Thanksgiving.