Thanksgiving Down Under

During my time here in Australia, Thanksgiving is one holiday that I've managed to celebrate in one way or another each year. The tradition has taken on even greater importance to me after the birth of my children. This year is no exception, the preparations have begun and I've started putting together the bits and pieces that will make up our Thanksgiving meal. As my daughter gets older, she's becoming more aware of my preparations and of the tradition itself. As we were out shopping today picking up a few things for Thanksgiving, we had the following conversation:

Her: "Mum, does everyone in Australia celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Me: "No darling. In fact, Australians don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a holiday that people in America celebrate and because you are half American and your Mommy is American then we celebrate it."

Her: "Mum, I'm not half American."

Me: "You're not? What are you then?"

Her: "I'm ALL American."

Me: "Really?"

Her: "Yeah, listen..CUCUMBERRRRRR!"

Me: "You're right. You are ALL American CUCUMBERRRR!!"

Then we both laughed.

Why is that funny? Well, my daughter speaks almost exclusively in an Australian accent. It makes sense because she was born here and has lived all of her four years here in Australia. My accent has become very Australian as well, so she doesn't get too much exposure to the American accent. There are still certain words that I say, however, that carry the American emphasis and accent and "cucumber" is one of them. So whenever my daughter wants to be funny, she'll say "cucumber" and really stress the "r" at the end because Australians don't pronounce the "r". They would say, "cucumba". Then she falls on the floor and kills herself laughing. Essentially she's poking fun at my American accent. She's four, folks. I didn't realise the mocking would start so early...