Thurso Thanksgiving(s)

Oh where, oh where has November gone?

Living in another country during 'American' holidays is always just a little bit weird and sometimes can be lonely.  But what usually happens is the expat community plans something - and this Thanksgiving was no different.

I was lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgivings.  On the actual Thanksgiving, I went over to Jason and Lynitia's house, and we had a huge meal with all of the traditional stuff.  Jason makes these brussel sprouts that are just about the best thing you've ever eaten - really, he does.

Lynitia made a cranberry, date, orange cake that was scrummy and only rivaled by her pumpkin and cream cheese pie.  It was fun listening to the trials of trying to figure out what an appropriate substitute for crisco might be - took 3 very frustrating attempts to get the pie crust.

I could have stopped there, and it would have been a perfect Thanksgiving, but the STUDS [spouses traveling under duress] had planned a much larger event for Sunday.

I had planned ahead and my source (aka Ma) had sent fresh pecans and corn syrup so I could bring pecan pies.  I also made my Auntie's cranberries - used port since I didn't have any red wine on hand, and this was a very good substitute.

I also made from scratch (no cans) green bean casserole - I made this for 60 people, which is what we were planning.  This required a lot of cooking - storage of food in the garage and an entire day of chopping and stirring - feels like Thanksgiving.

We were lucky enough to get to use the Blue Door Diner, which is owned by a Texan.

See the clocks: Thurso, Sydney, D/FW

We started the meal with Kyler reading out the meaning of Thanksgiving.  He was awesome.  Now I say this and you all might hmm that's nice, but there are really almost no words to explain his performance. He had planned and written up this very concise meaning and then he belted it out - BELTED IT OUT.  

There was a moment where I thought I might wet my pants.  

And THE FIRST SETTLERS...

After dinner, everyone sat around and talked and then walked around and filled up our 'to go' containers.  

Come on, it's Thanksgiving, there had to be leftovers.  

It was fun to see everyone's 'traditional' Thanksgiving food.  With 4-5 different kind of sweet potatoes, you were bound to find the one that reminded you of family.  We also enjoyed explaining to the Brits that marshmallows were supposed to be on the vegetables.

This year, I am grateful for this incredible experience in the unique place with these crazy and interesting entertaining people.