With everyone’s favorite time for filling up on pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce coming up, most of us can say we know Thanksgiving’s history and traditions pretty well. While you prep your turkey, here are some facts you might not have learned in kindergarten:

• About 46 million turkeys are cooked for Thanksgiving each year.
• Sarah Joseph Hale, the woman who wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” convinced Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after writing him letters for 17 years. Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday on October 3rd, 1863.
• People consume an average of 4,500 calories every Thanksgiving. Wear your sweatpants!
• There are four towns named Turkey: one in Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, and North Carolina.
• Butterball has a turkey-cooking hotline available for questions during the holidays! They answer over 100,000 calls each November and December.
• The very first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was held in 1924 and didn’t actually feature any balloons or giant floats. They did, however, have animals from the Central Park Zoo, puppets, and celebrities (including Santa Claus himself)!
• We know the sitting President pardons a turkey each year, but did you know what these lucky turkeys get to do afterwards? The pardoned turkeys of 2005 and 2009 went on to serve as the grand marshal for Disneyworld’s annual Thanksgiving parades.

​We’re thankful for all we have this year, and we hope you get to enjoy time with friends and family this Thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago, Alphabet’s drone unit Wing launched the first commercial drone delivery in the United States.

The company is partnering with Walgreens and FedEx, beating out other big competitors like Amazon. Christiansburg, Virginia is one of the first cities among a few more in Virginia that will get to try out food, coffee, and medicine delivery by drone in only a few minutes. Walgreens is officially the first U.S. retailer to air-deliver products to customers directly by drone, and FedEx is the first logistics company to do so.

“Innovation has been part of the FedEx DNA since day one, and we are always looking for new and better ways to deliver the world to our customers’ doorsteps,” said Don Colleran, president and CEO of FedEx Express. “For our customers in Christiansburg, this collaboration will test the latest innovation in the last mile of a residential package delivery. We hope that this latest addition to our delivery options will enhance the last-mile service for urgent same-day deliveries, customers in rural or semirural areas, and other exceptional delivery needs.”

As this technology spreads to more common use, it will be especially beneficial for people who are homebound or have disabilities which make going out more difficult. If the technology develops even further, it could potentially help people who live in more isolated areas get access to more product options.

​Alphabet was the first firm to receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, but more companies including Uber and UPS are inching towards securing their own federal approval. The Wing won’t be the only drone available for consumers for much longer!