What a FANTASTIC time we had at the Potluck Thanksgiving dinner that was volunteer-organized by American friends of ours, Vanessa and Rob Garey. When you think "potluck," you don't usually imagine something like this. It was fantastic. We truly felt like we had experienced Thanksgiving. REAL Thanksgiving. Beautiful, classy, yummy, cozy Thanksgiving. And to share the experience with so many other new friends -Americans and other nationalities- made it all the more blessed. (Below: Julia fell asleep on the ride over, but Avery was ready to mingle!) (Seriously... What IS it about watching guys carve a turkey that just warms your heart? This feels like home.)
The evening wrapped up with beanbag chairs and blankets on the ground while they played Home Alone on the big screen and passed out hot chocolate and coffee. Perfect. If the girls hadn't been scared by the movie, we would have stayed until the last credits rolled. I *heart* Home Alone, but I do understand the scary aspects of how it must look to a 4-year-old, too. I found myself trailing off when I tried to comfort Avery by explaining: "Oh, honey, it's not scary! He's just home by himself because his parents flew off without him... And now there are some guys who... want to get inside his house... Hmmm... Wanna play with Mommy's earrings?" Throw in a taranchula spider and a talking basement furnace and you've got a kid's Christmas horror show. She'll grow an appreciation for it someday-- it's a modern classic! (Below: Our amazing Hosts, The Gareys. Don't mind the mustache, it's "Movember.")
Today was Thanksgiving Day, but I must admit it looked a little ordinary from our vantage point. Collin had a full schedule today, so we decided to observe our family Thanksgiving this weekend. But I couldn't just let the day pass without acknowledging that it was THE Thanksgiving Day! ...and I hadn't planned any special Thanksgiving-y things ahead of time, so I knew I'd be shooting from the hip... Thankfully, we found a live-feed of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade online, so we spent our afternoon glued to the computer screen! Our "feast" was pretty poor... Come to think of it, I didn't even have a vegetable on the plate! Hopefully the girls will get their fill of the good stuff when we have a proper Thanksgiving meal in a few days. Our ordinary day was peppered with several fun moments, but tears did find me a time or two. However, every longing for home was soothed in a sweet Skype conversation with my family as they had just finished their feast. It did such good things for my heart to see their sweet faces-- I felt, in some strange way, like I was right there with them. No turkey and dressing and not a single bite of pumpkin pie, but at the end of the day I felt absolutely full of all good things.
Happy Thanksgiving. Love, hugs & extra gravy to all...
(Avery & I making a Pumpkin Pie in the days leading up to Turkey Day! Please disregard our tiny kitchen in the background.) :)
(Thanksgiving at our house, November '08. Amazingly, just looking at these pictures of Thanksgiving in our own home helps soothe the Seasonal homesickness in several ways... I'll try not to think about how every precious thing on this table-- table and chairs included-- are all boxed up in dark cold storage this Thanksgiving. *mock heaving sobs*) All across America, our friends and family are setting their plans and their dining room tables in preparation for a wonderfully short work week and a cozy 5-day Holiday weekend. They'll enjoy a feast of all things wonderful. It may vary from house to house, but traditionally it's turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, fresh hot rolls and/or cornbread, pecan and/or pumpkin pie and several other mouthwatering morsels. Our American friends will also partake in the age-old Thanksgiving Day tradition of gathering warmly by the living room fire to gaze upon the 42" plasma screen TV to watch college football in high definition. (Ok, so the high def aspect is relatively new... but the rest of the tradition is respected and observed by so many that one would think it is nearly as old as America, herself.) And then, at the strike of midnight, the Christmas season begins! It's simply lovely. A beautiful segue to the most wonderful time of the year. Sigh... Thanksgiving. How we'll miss you.
(Thanksgiving at our "new" house, November of '10. We are SO thankful to have been sent some pictures of family and some Thanksgiving things in the mail! Makes the season a little more festive, for sure!) November 25th here in England will look quite different for us, and understandably so. It's a usual Thursday for me and the girls. Collin has a full schedule of class, study groups and meetings lasting from sunrise to sunset and probably well beyond. We will be longing for a true Thanksgiving on that day, and I'm tempted to ask my family if they would be willing to set the laptop in the corner of the room for me to "skype in," but I ultimately think it would be more depressing to look but not taste. (If you had ever tasted my Mom's Thanksgiving dinner, you'd understand my angst. It's fantastic.) So, Thursday will be a bit of a let-down but we are looking forward to Saturday the 27th when we'll attend a Thanksgiving Potluck dinner for our group of expatriates and friends! That will be a treat, assuming we can arrange a babysitter! And even as wonderful as it will be to celebrate here with fellow Americans and others, I'm afraid it will be no substitution for the real thing: There truly is no place like home for the holidays.
So, my sweet and wonderful American friends and family... PLEASE enjoy. Enjoy enough for all of us. And when you're finished with the feast of fabulously-flavored fare and fourty square inches of football, grab a quick nap so you can be sure to bring your "A game" at Wal-Mart on Black Friday! It's the American way and I love it!
From all of us here in Merry Olde England, (including Pilly Hill, the Daddy, the Turkey, Ernia and Chicken...) we wish you a very happy day of giving thanks. And we, too, will be counting our blessings with a grateful heart for all that God has done.
November 5th marks the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I in 1605. So, with treason, gunpowder and a failed murder plot, celebration is definitely the first thing that comes to mind, right? ;)
This was our first time to experience Guy Fawkes Night and even though we stayed right here at home instead of attempting to brave the rain and the crowds elsewhere, we had a blast. Collin was able to be home for dinner which was such a treat for us! (He is half-way through his first term and things are getting intense! Seeing him at all these days is rare, but having him home by 6pm was a Guy Fawkes Night miracle.) :) In our attempt to do something very "British" on this particular holiday, I did a Shepherd's Pie for dinner along with salad and apple cider. We made s'mores for dessert (more "bonfirey" than British) and the girls LOVED them. We did have to get a little creative with the s'mores, though, as I wasn't ever able to find marshmallows here in Oxford. I substituted marshmallow creme and it tasted great. I also used "biscuits" instead of graham crackers because biscuits are delicious. With a pretty steady rainfall outside and no marshmallows to roast, we just popped them in the microwave. They turned out great.
Between dinner and dessert, we got to watch a fireworks display from the girls' bedroom window! It was honestly one of my favorite "mental snapshot" moments ever. All four of us were on Avery's bed in the dark with the window open and a brilliant fireworks display outside. It was chilly with the window open, so we pulled blankets around us and snuggled down to watch the show and our girls' faces light up with each big boom. It was perfect. I wanted to find the pause button of life and just breathe that moment in for a while. (Of course our "home college," Green Templeton, didn't start their show until 10:30pm after the girls were asleep. It was SUPER close to our house and it was LOUD. It literally sounded like a gunfight in the street but the girls slept right through it. (Whew!) ...Sure, they wake up at the first glimpse of sunlight but THAT they sleep through... Happy Guy Fawkes Night, 2010! (Above: Pictured here is the corner of our rooftop with the Green Templeton College Fireworks display in the background... Just to show there was no exaggeration in how near these things were!) :) (Above: So glad we got an actual snapshot of my favorite "mental snapshot" moment that evening. Below: You just can't beat a night that ends with something this good.)
It really offers perspective to experience such a familiar holiday in a different culture.
Pumpkins here are relatively small and not overwhelmingly available. The sweet British lady looking at them alongside me was most likely choosing one to bake, eat and enjoy while I carefully selected one that looked best to hack-up with a serrated knife and light ablaze! Costumes were hard to find as well. (They call it "fancy dress" here instead of costume.) Even on amazon.co.uk while online shopping for the kids, I was only able to find a handful of costume options, and most were very grim. "Why not just buy a costume at the store" you ask?... Because there weren't any. With the exception of maybe one or two supermarkets, the retail world of Oxford was seemingly completely unaware of Halloween. THAT alone was enough to spook this American! I had no idea I was so used to the over-commercialization of Oct. 31st! I honestly can't walk through somewhere as simple as a gas station in Texas this time of year without emerging on the other side plastered with bats and cobwebs and having been rudely surprised and laughed-at by at least one mechanical character. (Preferably a skeleton wearing a top hat.) It's just how it's done! And for one such as myself who never keeps a running calendar --let's be honest-- it's how I know what part of the year we're in.
Although it was quite a different experience here, our children still wanted to dress up and trick-or-treat, of course, so we did our best to piece together the requested costumes: "SweetPea Beauty" and "Nemo." I'll spare you the details of how I worked until the last minute with blue shiny paper and masking tape to make Julia's costume, but somehow it all worked out! THANK YOU to the Warrens for hosting us in their home for a pre-trick-or-treat dinner party! So much fun! And thanks, also, to the precious (albeit small) group of lovely British neighbors on Southmoor Street who gave us a glimpse of an American-style Halloween right here in Oxford. Halloween success in the UK! :)
