Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day in America is a very big holiday, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Traditionally, all family and friends get together and celebrate this day.
Before Thanksgiving.
On November 24, my cousin and her family came to Arizona from Boston for the Thanksgiving holidays. Her husband recently traveled a lot on business trips to Thailand, India, Europe and he has accumulated bonus miles for the plane. He took a week off until 3 December. They stayed with friends who live in a two-story house, a 10-minute walk from us. W e saw each other only the next day. they arrived very late at night.
On November 25, adults had a working day, my grandson was at school, and I met my nephews for the first time. The children just turned 11 on November 24. Although I have a lot of their photos and met on Skype several times, it was interesting to look at them. My sister and her husband rented a large car with 7 seats right at the airport, in the morning they picked me up and we went to sit in a café. Children hardly speak Russian, but they understand. Their daughter speaks best of all, one of the boys tried to speak a little, and the second did not say a single word. In general, of all the children of friends and relatives whom I saw, my grandson speaks best of all, and special progress has been felt since my arrival. Children practically do not part with their iPads either in the car or in a café. Parents try to limit my grandson’s use of the iPad, so he loves to visit and play there to his heart’s content.
Children practically do not part with their iPads either in the car or in a café.
The next day was a working day, but the schoolchildren were no longer studying, so my sister and her husband arranged a birthday party for the children at the CrackerJax entertainment center. Several other Arizona friends of my nephews were also invited. By the appointed time, each invited child was brought by their parents to the entertainment center and left. At the end of the entertainment came for the children. The center was a building with slot machines and a park where there were car rides, minigolf, boat rides on the water; then there was pizza, a game of laser gun shooting.
November 26 in the evening we met in the apartment. They grilled meat by the pool and sat right there until the evening, and the children swam in the pool and in the jacuzzi (adults did not dare, for the day and evening were very warm). Then we slowly moved into the apartment.
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving, according to the tradition here, is celebrated by one of our friends. The mistress of the house fried two huge turkeys, beautiful and tasty, and many other goodies. I baked a firewood cake. There were about 15 guests (not counting children).
All the remaining days passed approximately the same way.
Black Friday.
This is the name of the day after Thanksgiving. “Black” it is probably for store employees because Christmas discounts start in American stores from this day, and customers rush to sort out goods. In large stores, many are on duty at night because the first to get goods at very large discounts, but they risk being demolished by the crowd because. These items are very limited.
We also went to the store, but after 12 o’clock, when the passions had completely subsided. It is also very difficult to buy something good, either the size does not fit, or the color, or it is very expensive, especially in terms of the current exchange rate. In general, for me personally, the sales tax that is levied on the buyer when paying at the checkout is very large here. You see one price, but you start paying, the result is completely different. The sales tax is levied on behalf of the state and varies from state to state. So, for example, in Arizona it is 8.3%, and in Alaska it is from 0 to 6%, it differs by city. But at the same time, there are very frequent sales, even in grocery stores there are discounts on bread. In stores, payment is mainly by cards. Many tellers are even stunned by cash because they can’t figure out how much change to give. Therefore, I don’t buy anything in stores, I don’t have a card, I also don’t speak English well, it’s also difficult to figure out their currency out of habit.
