My parents and I moved from Surheim, Bavaria to a small village town west of Minneapolis a month before my 5th birthday. It was at that time made up of all German immigrants, my family being one of the last German families to immigrate there. Then and to this day, most of our community life revolves around the church and the outdoors. Sundays, you went to mass in the morning (still in German) and afterwards, either my mother or another relative would make sunday dinner for 20-30 people. Was always 2 meats, a ham and a beef roast, several hot dishes (known as casseroles in the rest of america), homemade bread and desserts. The women would be in the kitchen, the men would be in the garage or the backyard and the kids would be everywhere.
During the week, mother would make 3 or 4 meals everyday. We started each day with a breakfast of bread, cheese, eggs and jams before my father went to work. My mother would then start cooking for dinner about 1.00 for the nightly dinner which was always meat, potatos, a vegetable, homemade bread and dessert. We would usually eat this about 17.00. We would then have a small dinner each night before bed (between 10.00 and 11.0, much like breakfast. Bread, cold meats, cheeses and coffee. Most nights, we would have friends over , a neighbor or other family members.
The area was full of lakes and woods, so then as today, our daily life was greatly affected by the outdoors and nature. We fished year round, 3 or 4 days a week in our canoes or off shore. In the winter, we drilled holes in the thick ice and built small houses on the lakes so we could fish in temperatures as cold as -40 and -50. When we werent fishing we were skating and playing hockey.
Holidays were much the same as Sunday dinners except rather than 30 people gathering, it was closer to 60. Christmas and Easter was always ham, with German style sidedishes. And of course our traditional Thanksgiving dinner was Turkey like all other Americans. During the summers, our area of minnesota was one festival after another, almost always with a German Theme. Every town had 2 or 3 festivals in the summer and fall so other than our own, we would go to other towns on saturdays for events such as bayernfest, sommerfest, zummerfest, Stiftungsfest, Oktoberfest.

Canli,
I am new here! HI!
No one ever answered your Turkey question. This is not a dumb question...how would someone know this if they live in another country? Here is the "kid" version of why there is Turkey on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is when the Native Americans helped the early settlers on the east coast of America. When the Europeans first came to America and didn't know about the native foods etc. (maybe were going to die that winter without help) The Native Americans cooked some Turkey and shared with the settlers and had a big meal, squash, pumpkin, beans, corn. The spirit of the holiday is to give thanks for what you have, even if you only have very little.

Whether the Native Americans made a mistake in helping them is controversial...considering what the settler's, children's, children did to the Native Americans (AKA Indians).

There are so many people of different ethnicities you will see different meals for Thanksgiving. And every day meals as well

The USA is a very multicultural, multiethnic society. On the coasts, New York and San Francisco you see more diversity than in the interior. As I have lived all my life on one coast or another it's difficult to comment on the interior.

New York City has a lot of Europeans as well as an influx of Caribbean and other immigrants. Walking down the street, you hear 20 different languages.

When I travel to other places, like Idaho, or Texas, I'm shocked at the cultural difference. Having spent very little time in those places, it's hard for me to talk about them other than they are very White and I only heard English being spoken. In Boise, ID I only saw one Black in a week. I did see a number of Mexicans, but they seemed to be pretty segregated from the other parts of that society.

CA and New York are less than 50% white. There is a very large Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and other) community as well as Mexican and other Latin Americans, Blacks from the South and other groups from Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Eretria or other places in Africa) or Asia (India, Arab, Pakistan, Afghanistan)

California was part of New Spain, then Mexico prior to becoming part of the USA, thus there is a lot of Spanish colonial influence. That Spanish influence was from in large part recently Catholic Spain, thus a large part of the architecture has strong Morrish influence. You will see a lot of Palm trees in CA. In fact it looks so much like the Mediterranean it's hard to realize you aren't there.

The parts I've lived in are very heavily influenced by these different cultures. That is what I really love about where I live, the cultural diversity. I see Pakistani and Indian women with their Shalvar Chamis and Dupatas and the ladies with the saris, Ethiopian women in their beautiful traditional garments as well as other groups in their beautiful traditional costumes.