Bring 'Er to England: Thanksgiving, Expat Style

One part of moving to another country is figuring out which of your own country's holidays to celebrate, and how to do it. Of course, US Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in the UK, so although Matt didn't work, the kids still had school last Thursday and Friday.

Thursday

Our school does do a small Thanksgiving celebration for the younger kids as a celebration of other cultures. So while some American parents take their kids out of school on this holiday, we decided to celebrate with our dinner on Saturday so it wouldn't disrupt their schedule. One perk of this was that I was able to volunteer at the school for their Thanksgiving celebration (and Clara stayed home with Matt). The kids in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 moved from room to room, doing crafts and games. (I helped with one of the crafts.) Then everyone gathered together for a turkey lunch. The kitchen staff cooked several dishes, such as turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy, with pumpkin pie and chocolate pudding for dessert. The American parents brought in dishes as well, of dressing, green bean casserole, succotash, cornbread, and more pumpkin pie. The parents and teachers got to eat with the kids. Then we cleaned up and the adults went home for a few hours. Of course, I couldn't take pictures of other people's children, so no photos for this section. I really enjoyed helping out, and Miles and Lily are still at an age where they like to be seen with me in public.

Some Americans in the UK do turkey dinner after school on the actual holiday. However, we had parent/teacher consultations scheduled. Our favorite sandwich shop does a special turkey dinner pie in the autumn, so we had ordered several of those the previous week. Matt and I ate ours in about 5 minutes right as the babysitter arrived, and then we rushed out the door to meet with the teachers. Not a very relaxing evening, but it wasn't bad.

Kind of a sad Thanksgiving table

Turkey dinner pie

Friday

I wouldn't have known it two years ago, but there actually is Black Friday in the UK (and several other countries in Europe). You can find deals online and in many stores, but it's in no way as big of a shopping day as in the US. Of course, Amazon has many deals, and we were able to find a few Christmas presents. But we weren't planning a big outside shopping trip.

Matt and I had planned to take Clara to the Leeds Christmas fair while the bigger kids were in school. But after drop off, I was so tired that I stayed home and watched television. It was lovely. That evening, Matt started to prep for our big Thanksgiving dinner.

Saturday

Last year, not only were we still getting used to our downsized kitchen and appliances, but we also had to transport loads of food, including the turkey. That greatly added to the stress of the preparation (especially for Matt, since he takes charge of 90% of the cooking). This year, we were hosting, and we have been using this kitchen long enough to be used to it. Turns out that a small kitchen and a small oven are still difficult, at least for us. We don't entertain much, but even for our family of five it would be much more convenient to have more counter space, oven space, and especially fridge space. But Matt made it work, and we had great food.

We had invited another family over that we met through the school. The mum is English and the dad is American, and one of the kids is a good friend of Lily's. They brought delicious food and wine, and the ever imporant pumpkin pie. The kids played together really well (and didn't make a big mess), which made things very happy for the adults. There were a couple of small hiccups, but overall the day was smooth.