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Published: November 29th 2008
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Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite holidays - pumpkin pie, loads of family, more food than you can imagine, the best leftovers, and because when it's all over, I can officially start listening to my favorite Christmas cds EVER. But this year was very different. First of all, you don't get pumpkin pie filling until the week after Thanksgiving. And I happen to not have any family with me. The past couple weeks, I've been almost dreading this holiday. It would be my first without family, and that's a really lonely and depressing thought. But I figured I would try to make the best of it, since I'd be heading back to family soon after.
The week before, my roommate told me we'd be getting together with some friends late afternoon for Thanksgiving dinner. We'd also have a big dinner with the small group on Friday. Christina's mom had kindly brought me a can of pumpkin pie filling, so I could make a pumpkin pie for the late afternoon get-together. I was later approached by some other friends of mine from school about doing Thanksgiving with some of the other single ex-pats. I thought that sounded fun, so we organized
a group of 10 of us to get together. So Tuesday I headed out to Safeway to look for turkey, pumpkin pie filling, butternut squash, and all other sorts of Thanksgiving foods. After getting over the initial heartbreak of no pumpkin pie available, we discovered big Butterball turkeys, sitting in the freezer like golden eggs. I was overjoyed, and ran to get a turkey, SO excited that at least some part of my Thanksgiving tradition would be preserved. Then I saw the price tag. $50 for a turkey. A smaller turkey. I was obviously not pleased by this development. But since I didn't actually know how to cook a turkey, I figured it was probably for the best. We did, however, find cranberry sauce and stuffing. And blueberry muffin mix with real blueberries. So it was a success, in a way.
Then came the actual day. I decided to skip school. No way to sugar-coat it really, but there it is. It was a holiday for the rest of my family, so I was not going to school. And I had to go get my visa renewed. So I slept in, took my time eating breakfast, read a little,
then headed off to the police station to make sure I could be in the country legally for the next week and a half. On my way back home, I picked up 3 chickens, a boatload of fresh vegetables, and some Amstel, which was solely for the chicken marinade. (ever had beer-can chicken? it makes a pretty good marinade...) I made a pumpkin pie for the late afternoon party. Christina and her mom made an awesome appetizer - they stuffed dates with blue cheese and roasted pecans. Around 3:30, we headed off to Annemarie and Matt's house to hang out for a bit. We talked, and drank hot apple cider, made from scratch I believe, and sat down for butternut squash soup before I had to leave. I headed over to my friend's apartment near by, where the cooking marathon began. We cooked two chickens - stuffed the skins with chunks of butter and lemon slices, stuffed the actual chicken with fresh shredded spinach, halloumi cheese, whole pepper, and fresh garlic. The marinade also had chicken stock, clementines, lemons, lemon zest, and all sorts of spices. We made sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, caramelized carrots, fried up some
green beans with garlic, as well as some crispy stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a very colorful salad. We ended up with only 5 of us there to eat, rather than the original 10 we planned for. But we all enjoyed it. There was so much food, we didn't really know what to do with it. A large part of it is in my fridge right now. Which means I totally don't have to cook until I leave in 9 days. Yes!
I woke up Friday morning, still full from the night before. Then came the best moment of the day - I got to put on Nat King Cole!!!!! It's what I love the most about the day after Thanksgiving. I got ready listening to my favorite Christmas music, then headed off for a long choir practice. That afternoon, my small group got together for another Thanksgiving dinner - turkey included! It was awesome - we watched the Longhorns destroy Texas A&M, ate until we could eat no more, and played the most ridiculous game of Scattergories. Turns out it gets that way when there are a good 15 or more people playing.
All in all, I actually
had a good Thanksgiving. I missed having family around, but I still got to enjoy that time with my friends here. And we had some awesome food.
Coming up: 2 more rehearsals, then it's concert time! Scary... Only 5 more days of class, 9 more days of the Middle East, and Twilight is finally being released here. Oh, and a cumulative test, because we just finished our first patterns book. Finally.
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Mummy
non-member comment
Hah!
I worked on Thanksgiving!!! Daddy, Helena and Siggy cooked a FEAST and brought it in. Marcilynn and Rob joined us, we had music and candles - and I took 40 minutes for lunch (sshhhh!). I can't wait to see you, hold you, hug you - brace yourself! I LOVE you!!!!!