Thanksgiving Round 1

This year will officially be my second year not at home for Thanksgiving. Not only not at home, but not in America. Last year in Mexico we had a nice meal at a restaurant that was billed as "Thanksgiving for Americans." And while it was fine, it wasn't so much Thanksgiving per se. Pumpkin flan is not so much a substitute for pumpkin pie, they get a gold star for effort. THIS year will be different. We are celebrating as a team on Thursday with just our small little bunch of Americans, taking the day off, and have even acquired a turkey from a friend of a friend (not terribly early before December, ie for Christmas). Hopefully it will arrive de-feathered. But if not, it will surely be more material for a future blog entry.

Eli and Hollie also wanted to be able to invite others into our little American holiday as well, so they had a Thanksgiving Dinner one week early. And oh boy oh boy I got invited into that one as well! They did it up RIGHT, with a sweet spread of pretty much all the essentials- turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, green beans, glazed carrots, stuffing, and rolls.

And pumpkin chiffon and apple pies for dessert, with a smattering of gingersnaps and maple oatmeal cookies (seen in intro picture), just to make sure you had to take off your belt AND unbutton the top button (or was that just me?). Can you say FULL? One thing that doesn't exist here AT ALL is cranberries. So we were without cranberry sauce, but Hollie, the great kitchen improviser, made a nice fruit sauce that was really tasty.

Though we don't do this in my family, apparently in Eli's family it's a BIG DEAL to cut the turkey- basically you're not a man until you have done so. Well, I have photographic evidence that Eli is now a man! Congrats brother.

Who, you may be asking, was in attendance at this little gathering? Well, glad you asked. There were 10 in all, including Eli, Hollie, and I. We also had Dov and Neev from Israel:

Anita from Kenya and Bogdan from Romania:

And William, Khai, and Jovi, all from Malaysia:

Basically none of the little 2's or 3's knew the others, so there were definitely some awkward moments, but they were quickly deflated by Eli's Master De-Awkwardizing Skillz. Yes, that's actually a spiritual gift, in case you were wondering. He even had prepared a little skit retelling the Thanksgiving story, and each person had a one-liner throughout as the story progressed. Good. Times. I suspect Thanksgiving Round 2 will be different in some ways and similar in others. I do hope I am similarly stuffed and supplied with food for a week afterwards. If I know Americans, that will unquestionably be the case. Gobble, gobble, gobble.