Thanksgiving 2019

This year on Thanksgiving, I volunteered at the school once again for an American holiday celebration.

The Infants classes (which is Reception, Year 1, and Year 2) had a morning full of crafts and pin the tail on the turkey. But I had the best job of all - I helped in the tasting room. The American families brought in traditional dishes, and I passed out small portions to the kids. We had rolls and cornbread, pork stuffing, plantains, canned cranberry sauce, chocolate pie, pumpkin pie, and apple pie (with a sample of Cool Whip).

I served the foods while explaining what we were eating and some differences in American Thanksgiving and British Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, most of the kids at least tried everything, though they definitely didn't like it all. The most popular dishes of the day were cornbread, chocolate pie, and (for some) cranberry sauce. And I'm pretty sure that everyone loved Cool Whip- which was a completely new thing for the locals. The head of education, along with the head teacher and deputy head (like principal and vice principal) also popped in to sample all of the food.

At lunchtime, all parents and siblings of American students were invited to eat with the infants. The kitchen staff had prepared a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade creamed corn, stuffing, and green beans. It was very tasty, and fun to share our culture.

That evening, Matt and I had parent/teacher meetings, so we had a quick dinner of our traditional English turkey dinner pies.

The following day, we picked the kids up early from school for a surprise. Miles was slightly disappointed that we weren't "celebrating Black Friday," but he soon cheered up.

We went to lunch at Pizza Express (one of the kids' favorites).

Then we went to the cinema to see Frozen 2. We had secretly packed Lily and Clara's Anna and Elsa dresses, so they were able to dress up. All three kids enjoyed the movie and the general fun of the day.

The seats are so roomy and comfortable

We did have a big Thanksgiving meal on that Sunday, and we invited another American family from the school to join us. Somehow I didn't take any pictures on that day, but it was a great time with kids playing and adult conversation. I'll have to make a note to get pictures next year!