November 24, 2012

A British Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It has all the right priorities: food, family, naps, and leftovers. No one is pressured into buying gifts for eachother, and its the only time of the year where we, collectively as the USofA, willingly focus on the positive.

We don't do that enough.

The Brits don't seem to have a reason to celebrate the union of the Pilgrims and Indians, and truthfully, they don't know what they are missing. I was bummed when I realized that Andrew and I were going to be the only ones on this island celebrating come November. I was also disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to spend this Thanksgiving with my loved ones. So instead, I decided to distract myself by putting all my energies into cooking a proper, traditional meal...  for just the two of us.

The idea was to cook enough food to be able to provide leftovers for one week. However, I forgot that Andrew and I are both pigs and can't resist good food. So instead of providing dinner for one week, we are on day three of eating leftovers... and the food is almost gone.

I'll have to come up with a better plan next time.

I was proud of myself. This is the first time that I've made a complete Thanksgiving meal from scratch. Actually, I misspoke. It wasn't completely complete... there was no turkey. I decided to replace my turkey with cheese fondue. I let Andrew decide what to do about his turkey. For whatever reason (admitted laziness), he chose to join me in an all-vegetarian meal.

We spent the day preparing food, watching sports (A), napping, and Skyping with our families. Group-Skyping can be pretty insane when there are ten adults and nine little boys on one end, but it was still wonderful!

So this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the opportunity to live in London.

I am thankful for the ability to afford a proper meal (many around the world cannot afford this luxury).

I am thankful for the world of blogging.

And I am thankful to be part of two wonderfully loving families.


Roasted carrots with olives, thyme, and lemon.


Homemade mashed potatoes (skin on, of course).


Charred filling.


Chicken gravy.

Proper cheese fondue with homemade Cracked-Pepper Dinner Rolls (recipe to follow).

Baked mother-of-a-sweet potato.
 
Meet Bastardo. Aka "Bastard" or "Terd" depending on how much trouble he gets himself into. Looks like he's having a Thanksgiving of his own.

The lighting ceremony in the town square.

Pretty church.

Fake snow at the lighting ceremony (no idea who those people are).

A camel at the lighting ceremony.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!
 
with hope
with love
(m)




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