Thanks!

Thanksgiving trip to the USA most enjoyable.
True to form, the weather provided an unseasonably warm day our first day there, which was lovely for our trip into DC. We saw an exhibition of fantastic wildlife photography at the National History Museum, had a very brief swing round the 'National Cathedral', which was extremely impressive (great stained glass) and in a very pleasant neighborhood, and ascended the Washington monument, views fantastic.
Thanksgiving itself is a pretty good kind of holiday. Broadly un-controversial - giving thanks unto whomsoever or whatsoever you choose (generally God, Native Americans, etc) for the survival of the pilgrim fathers through a disastrous first winter, and subsequent survival of the colonies and founding of America.
(Although, there are Christian groups who go on about enforcing the 'true' meaning of Thanksgiving which must involve God, whether or not you believe in him - not sure how that would fit with constitutional freedom of religion - come to think of I'm not sure how Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter being national holidays but other faiths not having holidays for major festivals works either - if that makes sense - I suppose they go with a majority - goodness having a written constitution must be complicated when you want to compromise)
Anyhoo, the day itself is basically eat til you burst, watch TV and play board games whilst eating some more. This I can handle. Also a family tradition chez Anthony to record on a card 5 things we are each thankful for this year, and to share them, which was actually a nice thing to do. I didn't feel out of place as a Brit, I think we're allowed to be thankful too, and I'm on balance pretty thankful that America exists, (and hence so does my wife) so I'll go ahead and party!
I learned how crescent rolls in a tube work, what green bean casserole tastes like, and that most sweet potatoes are actually yams. Sweet potatoes taste exactly like yams but look like a yellow potato, rather than like an elongated orange slightly hairy potato. Fascinating!

Oh and finally, the good news is that God is going to get one of us a job by Sunday. So that's good........