Friday, November 26, 2010

An ex-patriate's Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Thanksgiving is a holiday that I've celebrated every year for the last 10 years that I've been living here in England. It's not always easy. As it isn't a holiday here, of course N doesn't get the day off. It'll probably never be a huge affair with lots of people and a huge table of food. Still, we do our very best to celebrate in our own way.

This year, things were extra complicated (N was really busy at work, my mother-in-law was in hospital having an operation, I fell down the stairs), but I think it's always nice to spend time thinking of all the things that I'm grateful for. My beautiful family: N, my boys, my mother-in-law, my dad. I'm thankful for my health, having enough of everything so that my life isn't hard. This book blog and all my wonderful readers. Every year at the dinner table, I always say I'm grateful for laughter, and I am. Especially the laughter of my Eldest. It's so loud and infectious and no matter how I'm feeling, I can't help but smile or even laugh at his laugh.

Every year, our family will prepare something special for Thanksgiving. It's almost never turkey as we're only four of us. N sometimes makes roast chicken, sometimes we'll choose American-themed foods. This year, the theme was Soul Food, and I prepared chicken jambalaya and cornbread and candied sweet potatoes. Delicious.



We always have pumpkin pie for dessert and every year the mixture is either too thick or I leave it in the oven too long. Every year I'm disappointed at how awful my pumpkin pies turned out, until this year. This year, they were heavenly. I'm not sure how much the boys enjoyed it though, but that just means there's more for me!

As an extra special treat, N ordered a big box full of American sweets for me. As you well know, American sweets are what I miss most, so it was a lovely thing for him to do. I can't wait to dig into it all ..

And that's it. That's how this little family celebrates our Thanksgiving. Thanks for indulging me in this personal post that has little impact or interest for anyone else outside of my family! And again, I'm thankful for each and every one of you. It's because of you that I write this blog.

Thank you.

5 comments:

  1. I am so jealous of that gorgoeus food.
    Hope you feel better after your fall.
    Happy thanksgiving at least you avoid Black Friday here :D

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  2. What recipe did you use for the jambalaya? Or was it a mix? I miss jambalaya with my whole heart. :p Happy Thanksgiving!

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  3. i really wanted to do thanksgiving this year as usually do special nights for a variety of world events (like chinese new year) or have themed nights when we invite friends over. Unfortunately with everything being as busy as it is we haven't had the chance but I'm going to pencil it in next year (any excuse for turkey - even if it is just a turkey crown!!)

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  4. What a feast! Soul Food for Thanksgiving is a stroke of genius, and I'm glad it all turned out delicious, especially the pie. Isn't a good pie the best?! When mine turn out, I just feel so darn competent.

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  5. Emma - Thank you :) And I'm STILL not feeling better after my fall! Definitely glad to miss out on Black Friday though. Craziness.

    Jenny - It was a Delia Smith recipe! And thank you :)

    Kirsty - I think that's lovely to do, celebrating world religions! Might just do the same :)

    JG - It was really nice :) And yes, I felt so WONDERFUL after my pie came out nice.

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