The November Perfect Post Awards

Visit other winners at Petroville and Suburban Turmoil

First of all, thanks to Sarcomical for introducing me to this wonderful little initiative which I think is a great idea for supporting the efforts of our fellow bloggers, as well as a great motivator for me personally to get out there reading more of what people are saying.

I have to be completely honest, even though I was planning on giving this award since the beginning of November, and kept my eyes peeled all month for a candidate, and even though I am constantly amazed at the quantity and quality of what's out there in blogland... until yesterday I hadn't run across any post that I felt was what I personally would consider a "perfect post." Of course, this is all totally subjective and I think that's part of what makes it great. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about what makes it perfect, and perfect has a lot to do with how you individually react to the post.


Happily, at the last minute, I read something and thought: yes! This is it. This month I read many expat tales of how they experience Thanksgiving abroad, and many of them were touching, funny, or really hit home with me--but none quite like Thanksgiving Revisited over at In Search of Dessert. I was impressed not only by Jessica's style of writing (believe me, it takes quite a bit of skill to keep me reading through a post as long as this one--I have a pretty short attention span with blog posts), but also by the sincerity and clarity of the thoughts she expresses. She put into words perfectly the ambivalence I also feel about Thanksgiving abroad, how much I miss it and the struggle at the same time with how to go about recognizing it in my adopted country. Even though she expresses some doubts about aspects of the American consumer culture, I think it was done in a sensitive way that thankfully doesn't contribute to the myth that we expats are abroad because we are shunning our home country or aren't proud to be Americans. I think this is a fine balance that is often misunderstood and I appreciated her honesty in this post.

Jessica is a fairly new expat who just reached her 6-month mark. Judging by the quality of her blog and writing, I'd say she's doing just fine and hope that she keeps on letting us into her and Jonathan's Swiss world!