Giving Thanks, International Style

At last - the story of Europahaus Thanksgivng (aka: how Bekah and Amy, with the help of a few others, cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 35-40 people) Months ago Amy, Jonathan and I began discussing Thanksgiving and how much we really wanted to celebrate here properly, not just with Americans, but with the people here who have become our European family. Now, that is pretty enough in a theoretical sense...I mean, Thanksgiving is a holiday about friends and family, generosity and thankfulness. The logistics of such a fest, are something entirely different, however. Luckily Amy and I are quite laid back and "go with the flow" kind of people - open to experimentation and mistakes. We began the night before with baking - pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, cookies, and cake. 10 am on Saturday morning we began the "real deal" cooking - more pumpkin bread, a 5kg turkey, 2 turkey breasts, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, neither of us had ever in our lives cooked a whole turkey ... needless to say, we were a little nervous: 

Clearly, I was a little nervous. To ease the tension, we named the turkey: it was much easier to work with Marv than with a rather intimidating mass of raw flesh and bones. (at least from my perspective) At this point of the day we made the executive decision to serve sloppy joes if the turkey flopped. We also comforted ourselves with the knowledge that most all of the people who celebrated with us  had ever celebrated Thanksgiving and thus had absoultely no idea what everything was supposed to taste like.

Marv nestled in his lovely home...stuffed and laying on a bed of vegetables (aka: just before the point of no return) Note the smiles on our faces: one part hopeful joy, the other part sheer terror! At this point we still had two more turkey breasts to cook (and had no idea how we were going to cook them) We ended up getting a little creative and making an orange-turkey breast and one with lots of vegetables. I would like to say that we pulled off everything flawlessly on our own, but that would be a gross exaggeration: without the help of Cindy (of course - her middle name is Save Bekah's Life Whenever Possible!) Sophie, and our Italian friend Giorgio no one would have eaten mashed potatoes or gravy...the were the 11th hour heroes! Also, Vicki, Melissa, and Justina did all of the decorations: what amazing friends we have!

Somehow, everything really turned out. Jonathan made chicken, sweet ham and apple pies, some people brought salad, some dessert, some drinks...it was an incredible group feast. We talked a little about why we celebrate Thanksgiving (origins, traditions, etc) and thanked everyone for being there...once everyone started eating, I finally started breathing again! Thomas was kind enough to stick by in the flurry and make sure that, in spite of my excitement, I ate something. 

I cannot even begin to describe to you the overwhelming number of compliments we recieved, or the joy that I felt in being able to share such a meal with so many of my good friends here. A friend lived in the US for a summer and lost like 15-20 pounds because he didn't like the food, but went back for 6 plates of food - we restored his hope in American cooking. The family of one of our good friends was in town and they joined us for the celebration - the entire night was just a shower of praise from them: how none of the French stereotypes about Americans seem to ring true with us, that they were so impressed by our work, generosity, cooking, and mostly the amazing community that we were able to gather. I had at least 5 people ask me for the pumpkin bread recipe (which everyone here is convinced is actually cake...) The list goes on. My thankful heart grew at least 10 sizes that day

Our smiles of terror turned to smiles of disbelief, relief, and sheer joy by the end of the night. I could not ask for a better person to do all of this with...and I still can't believe we pulled it off!

My Europahaus (and Karlsruhe) family...most of the group was still there when we took this picture (although a few had to leave a little earlier) I am so thankful. So blessed. ~love~