German Thanksgiving without Sauerkraut

So being away from home is hard at times but I knew not being at home for Thanksgiving was going to be really hard. I had talked to some of the people that are living in North Rheine Westphalia about throwing a Thanksgiving dinner. Since I mostly have a little house to myself I decided it made the most sense to throw it here. I first had to talk with my host family to make sure it would be ok. I picked the Saturday after the real Thanksgiving to have it. I talked to my host family and we made an agreement that if I babysit the night before I can have the Thanksgiving dinner. So I sent out an email inviting about 10 people and asked everyone to bring something to contribute to the dinner.

Since I was throwing the party I thought I should cook the turkey. I went to the butcher in a grocery store and asked how I get a turkey. They said I would have to order it and it would be about 7 Euro per kilo and I would get a 6 or 7 kilo turkey. I talked to my host mom about it and she knows a butcher that lived up the street and he said he could sell it to me for only 5 Euro per kilo. I said that sounded like a great deal and to let him know I would love a turkey to pick up on Friday. The host parents left and I was the babysitter for the night. I thought it would be fun to make a Thanksgiving type craft with the kids so we made apple Turkeys. My host mom left me a number to contact the butcher to pick up the turkey. I was started to get a little nervous once it was 7 pm and the butcher wasn’t answering the phone. I called the host mom and she told me to just walk up the block and knock on the door. I went to the butcher’s house and his mother in law was there and she had the turkey sitting on the stairs waiting for me.

I started the turkey the next morning and had looked on the internet and it said it should only take about 4 hours. Everyone showed up about 3pm and everyone brought a dish along. We had all the dishes that you normally have for thanksgiving, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potatoes and even a pumpkin pie. We all just hung out and drank some wine and had a really nice evening. It was hard not being at home for Thanksgiving but being able to spend it with friends and have a good American food worked out well. The next morning I cleaned up the house and packed my bags because that day I was jetting off to Spain.

---

---