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!

Thanksgiving 2018

This year, as in the recent past, we had a low key Thanksgiving day, and celebrated with a proper meal at the weekend.

Normally, the school does a morning celebration for the younger classes, with games, crafts, and turkey lunch. However, it was put off this year due to the World War I centenary celebrations. The teachers still talked about the holiday, but there was no parental volunteering or special meal. It was slightly disappointing if I'm being honest, but logically I don't expect people here to join in my cultural celebrations. (The lady at checkout at the drugstore told me Happy Thanksgiving, and I was a little excited about being acknowledged.)

Anyway, this year Matt decided to work on Thursday and take Friday off. So Clara and I hung out just like it was a typical day. As is our expat tradition, we ate turkey dinner pies on the actual holiday. Miles was very disappointed that we did not have pumpkin pie (don't worry, we made up for it).

We had a proper Thanksgiving meal with friends on Saturday. We had such a nice time that I forgot to take many pictures.

For dinner we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, succotash, and rolls. Of course it was all delicious.

The kids had fun playing before and after the meal.

And for dessert we had pumpkin pie, sopapilla cheesecake, and gooey butter cake. With all of the food plus drinks, we were completely stuffed.

Miles must have eaten half a pie on his own

The adults had good conversation afterward, while the kids played upstairs, downstairs, and outside. Lily was especially excited to see her good friend who has recently changed schools.

Friends since nursery

I do miss being in the US around the holidays. It does help though, sharing Thanksgiving with friends, and we did have a wonderful day. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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.

Mixer with the enormous transformer we have to use with it

Setting the table

Putting on the finishing touches

Running out of room

Happy Thanksgiving to my (US) American friends!
    

Australian/American Thanksgiving in England

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday since the kids were in school Thursday. We are awaiting delivery of the dining room furniture we ordered, so our Australian expat friends offered the use of their house in exchange for delicious American food.

We went simple and traditional with the food, but the preparation was anything but simple. Our menu consisted of turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, smashed potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Our hosts would supply another dessert and the adult beverages.

Some of the ingredients were difficult to find, but we managed. The real challenge was cooking all of the food in an English kitchen. The ovens here are much smaller, so we could only cook one thing at a time. Add in adjusting to a different oven, temperature conversions, some substitutions in ingredients, and trying to clean up with a sink that is smaller than some of our pans, and you can see why Matt was cussing and stressed. But we (he) got through it, and we carted our feast to our friends' house.

Once we got there, we were able to enjoy ourselves. We had drinks while warming up a few things, and the kids all ran off to play.

Pretty soon we were able to sit down to eat, and the food turned out great. The pumpkin pie and homemade "cool whip" were delicious, and the sticky date pudding (aka sticky toffee pudding) made by our hosts was amazing.

Overall it was a really good day. Next year though, it has to be at our apartment, with more practice. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I was able to help out in Miles' class. Since they celebrate different cultures, they did a Thanksgiving party in the classrooms for the first three years. There were games, crafts, and of course turkey for lunch. I wasn't able to get pictures, but it was fun to take part, and Miles was so excited that I was there.

Since it's just Thursday here, we won't be really celebrating until this weekend. So tonight, we're having turkey dinner pies from our favorite sandwich shop. They contain turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and apple. All topped with a pig in a blanket (aka sausage wrapped in bacon). Pretty tasty!

Happy Thanksgiving!