Thanksgiving

This year I celebrated Thanksgiving not once, but twice - in a country which doesn't even recognize this holiday. On Tuesday morning, two days before the actual Thanksgiving, my flat of fifteen LMU students began preparing for our feast. We coordinated tag-team turkey-cooking between going to class and running to the market. Some of my flatmates bought candles and flowers to decorate our common room table. There was pie-baking, potato-mashing, and even the sounds of bickering that would make anyone feel at home on Thanksgiving. We had to time everything just right - with two ovens for seven cooks and the enigmatic turkey that none of us were sure would ever cook. We guessed on our start time: appetizers and drinks at 7:30...we nibbled on(a.k.a. devoured...you know how you can never wait to eat on Thanksgiving?)artichoke dip and humus, olives and peanuts, ham and French baguette. And then by some miracle the turkey was finished. We brought out the stuffing, the mashed potatoes swirled with sweet potatoes, the spinach salad with candied walnuts and bleu cheese vinaigrette, the sweet potatoes with marshmallows, the pork pies, the green beans...and I carved our masterpiece turkey. Music from 'Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown' accompanied our fabulous meal and we finished the evening with mulled wine and apple and pumpkin pies.

Thursday brought another memorable evening...this time in a less familiar setting. Our professor from LMU and his wife hosted our Thanksgiving meal at a Russian restaurant in a small Kensington neighborhood. We were greeted at the door by two dark-haired, thick-accented, lovely Russian women who promptly informed us that we could not proceed to the table without our shots of Vodka. We simply couldn't protest! We had Chicken Kiev and I chatted with Grace, the ten-year-old daughter of the Labour MP, Graham Allen. And as if that weren't enough, a jolly Russian man serenaded our party with tunes on his accordion. We ended this second Thanksgiving with a game of Scrabble and a round of drinks at our local pub.

I am filled with gratitude as I look back on this time of laughter, friendship, and celebration. I am also reminded of how much I have to be thankful for each and every day - most especially for the gift that each of you have been in my life.
Happy Thanksgiving...

With gratitude for the lives that have shaped you,
the hands that have held you,
the voices that have inspired you,
the eyes that have beheld you,
and the ears that have listened to your voice.