Some Thanksgiving Thoughts

The picture is Martha Stewart's - obvi.

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving because I had to work and church commitments on Thursday. We had 20 people, mostly my international students plus three church friends, crammed in our little house and I made all the food. Like, all of it. For the first time in my life. 


I had nightmares about it for about a week and was really worried about things that realistically could have gone wrong but didn't: what if Tesco didn't have turkey, what if we don't have enough room in the refrigerator for all of the food, what if the turkey doesn't fit in the crock pot, what if we run out of food, what if they hate it, what if all these people just don't fit in the house, what if... ? You get the picture. 


Much to my relief, my international students genuinely liked the food, and I was so relieved. Many of them had never eaten turkey before, and none of them had ever had stuffing. It was everyone's first Thanksgiving, except for Nathan's and mine, which I found really exciting. Anyway, good times were had by all, and we had plenty of delicious food left over.


I couldn't have done it without Charissa (who pretty much just chopped things for three hours yesterday), Pamela (even if she did forget to put the sugar in the pumpkin pie), Nathan (dish washer and potato masher extraordinaire), and Nat (gravy whisker), who each helped me so much. Thank you!


It feels super weird to go about normal life on such a big American holiday. No time off of work, no big boxes of chicken broth or jars of cranberry sauce or cans of pumpkin to see on display by the front doors of the grocery store, no Black Friday shopping, and no Christmas card envelope stuffing. 


Normally the day after Thanksgiving I drop my Christmas cards in the mail. Confession: I LOVE when someone says, "We got your Christmas card, and it was the first one of the season! You are so organized." *Pat pat pat* Mental pat on the back. 


This will not be happening this year. I did order them this week, but I had them shipped to my parents' house because it was waaay cheaper, not to mention that posting them all from the States will be waaay cheaper than spending $1.50 for each stamp to send them from here. So anyway, they'll get to you, don't you worry. 


I love Christmas cards. Love, love, love. It's a tradition that I don't think I will ever give up, even as we move into a more digital and environmentally friendly world. If you are planning on sending us a card (pretty please?), make sure you send it to the right place! We've moved, remember? I'm not going to type our address on this here post for security reasons (although it would be practically impossible to find us because we don't have a street sign on our street or a house number on the house), but you can request it from me in the comments section or on Facebook. Or you can mail it to my parents or my in-laws, whichever is easiest.


Now, I have to think about where to display all of these beautiful cards you will be sending our way...


Happy Turkey Weekend.