Our European Christmas Cruise is one week old today.  But first, tomorrow will be  Thanksgiving , a tradition that began in the U.S. in 1619 with the English settlers on the ship Margaret in Virginia. Of course, this continued with the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. Our first President, George Washington, proclaimed 26November1789 as a day of thanks. President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 as the final Thursday in November. But in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt changed this holiday to the next to last Thursday in November to boost the economy, adding an extra week for Christmas shopping. This was not popular, so in 1942, Congress changed the official national Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday in November, a compromise, for this day sometimes is not the final Thursday of the month. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy acknowledged that both Virginia and Massachusetts were the first. We are in  Germany , and they do celebrate Thanksgivi...