Subtle Differences: Giving Thanks

I'll be keeping this post short but I thought I would share my thanksgiving experiences this year.

As my fellow Americans know, thanksgiving is a special time of year. I like it particularly because it's not a holiday that is surrounded by religion which can sometimes divide family and friends. Although thanksgiving certainly has it's sourness when we consider the history of settlers and their treatment of native peoples, which despite the colorful cartoons they feed children, is quite gruesome and bloody amongst both groups it can truly be a joyous holiday.

Growing up, I had a more unconventional thanksgiving than the typical advertised kind in american tv and film. Since my extended family on both sides live very far away (Kansas and New York) we typically celebrate thanksgiving with 4-5 other families that my parents went to graduate school with. Thus I've always been surrounded by a group of people I consider my family away from family.

When I lived in NY for my bachelors I was able to experience the more "quintessential" thanksgiving that is rich in family and inherently a little drama! Those years with my family was also truly lovely.

This year, as you know, I'm abroad and away from both types of family. Many people asked me if I was homesick about the holiday and overall I thought, "No no, I'm fine. It's sad but what can you do?" At the beginning of the month, I wasn't sure if I would be able to participate in any kinds of mock thanksgiving meals since student housing often doesn't have an oven and even with the ovens you lack many of the tools required. But I was blessed to celebrate the holiday this year twice!!

The sister of a friend I went to high school with is studying in Rotterdam and our mom's had spoken and she contacted me saying to call if I ever felt homesick etc. Later she was sweet enough to think of me and invite me to join her and her friends for a thanksgiving dinner. I originally wasn't sure if I would be able to attend but in the end I was able to go and bring along my german friend, Laura. We had a lovely time meeting new people, many of whom are also international, and eating great food. I have to admit that it was nice to be reminded of home in the food we ate.

The second thanksgiving was Saturday. I joined a lovely group of international students who are "mentored" by a dutch student and get together and share drinks and food weekly. I've been really happy to meet such a great group and just lovely dutch mentors who go the extra mile to take care of us. There are two other americans in the group though we're all from different parts of the US: New Mexico, Illinois(Chicago), and Washington DC. Although I wasn't sure if I would be able to help out with the meal, I decided to do it and I'm glad I did. Charlotte, one of our dutchies, offered up her parents home for the meal which made all the difference in prepping for the meal.

We started at 3:30 after picking up a 4.5 kilo/10 lbs fresh turkey from the butcher. Alice had forethought to bring champagne which reminded me fondly of thanksgiving I share with my family in NY. We always start our day with mimosas. From there on out, we worked together to prepare our very first ever thanksgiving meal. None of us had really any experience in preparing side dishes and certainly had no clue how to cook a turkey! Luckily we were in a gorgeous fully equipped kitchen that could satisfy all of our cooking needs.

I proudly made apple pie for the first time and I thought it was delicious. Frankly, the meal turned out better than I ever could've imagined. We worked hard and we ate incredible amounts of food. In case you're interested, we made:

Turkey (with bacon on top!!)
Stuffing
Corn
Candied carrots
Pea, mushroom and onion casserole
Mashed potatoes with rosemary goat cheese
Salad
Gravy from the drippings
Apple Pie
Lots and lots of wine and beer :D

Finally, my absolute favorite part of every thanksgiving aside from being surrounded by people you really love, is when everyone goes around the table saying what they're thankful for. To me, it's something we as a culture don't do often enough. We are constantly rushing around frantically from one day to the next moaning about this and that and we forget to stop and look around at all the things we take for granted. But on thanksgiving you have the chance to slow down and do just that. And from my experiences, sometimes it can truly be tear-worthy speeches every year. Since most guests were foreign, this was a new experience but every single person (new to the group or not) was able to say something nice and insightful about their lives. Although many of us are thankful for the same things, each person was able to give us a peek into their lives and what truly matters to them.

So, I want to thank every person I celebrated with this year because you made this holiday mean even more to me than it did before. Happy Thanksgiving!