A Very American Thanksgiving

I know, I know.  It's the middle of February.  Not exactly turkey season and deck the halls for most people. I'm in the process of getting caught up before our new term begins, though, and realized I had not done any holiday posts.  So, I thought it might be interesting to revisit how we did things here (and I maybe already had this one written up).

Considering that the celebration of American Thanksgiving is strictly, well, American, we (the foreign teachers) knew full well that we would need to teach our normal load of classes that Thursday.  We were also asked to judge an English competition that night.  So, we made plans to attempt a traditional meal the following Sunday afternoon.

I chose to celebrate the actual holiday by setting up a Skype date with my family.  The call came sometime around 4 or 5 am China time and the connection was not amazing, even at that hour.  But, it was still so refreshing to hear everyone's voices and see my precious nieces flit across the screen.  The day was also filled with well wishes and texts from my students - very touching considering the holiday's an entirely new concept for many of them.  One student even brought me a present!  (I'll need a separate post for that gem.)

Homesickness did threaten to rear its ugly head on Friday as I missed being with the fam in person, then hitting the sales with my dad that morning - a bit of a father-daughter tradition.

I wasn't sure how things would go on Sunday, but was cautiously optimistic, despite Arianne and I being appointed over all things pumpkin: roasted root veggies, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin pie.  I nervously took charge of the pie(s) and must say it actually worked out quite nicely.

The pies in question:

With Arianne at the helm, of course the other dishes were amazing.  She even made a type of "cranberry" relish that was stellar.  (I lamented to probably only all of my classes that we hadn't been able to find cranberries in China - with the exception of crazy expensive craisins.  Two of my students took it upon themselves to rectify that and came back with these crazy, little, red, sour apple things that grow only on mountain trees.  So, not exactly cranberries from a bog, but they somehow managed to work.)

The other foreign teachers pooled together and we had turkey (quite the ordeal and expense - but ever SO amazing!), dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin soup, rolls with butter(!), gravy, roasted root vegetables, a Waldorf salad, the "cranberry" relish, lemon curd, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  I'm sure I'm probably forgetting at least a thing or two, and it may not sound like a big deal to those of you that celebrated in the states, but it was truly phenomenal for us here.

 These guys are no fools - they know where to hang out.

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, we gave thanks for all our provisions and even invited the two Canadians along to join in the feast.  (They brought the dressing - of course they were invited!)  It was indeed a special day, and so much more than we could have asked for or felt was deserved.