eating, drinking and, oh yeah, giving thanks (at least that's what Suzanne's book says).
This year's Thanksgiving was a success. Yes, I think I can say that in all fairness and give myself a pat on the back.
This was a very special Thanksgiving because my sister and her boyfriend were visiting. On Friday, we all piled into the car (me squeezed between the 2 kids in the backseat) and drove to the farm to get our Thanksgiving turkeys which are actually Christmas turkeys with a shorter lifespan. Unfortunately, we could not see any live turkeys but we did see fat geese, ducks and some ostriches. Max loved the ostriches. But I always find them kind of distrurbing because when I look at them, I see a person inside holding up an arm as a neck and the hand as the mouth. Max said "tookee" and I said, nope just an ostrich. Suzanne wasn't impressed with the smell.
But she was impressed with the turkey army featured above. They were a huge hit, frosting and all which goes to show that the American spirit runs deep since French kids find frosting to be pretty offensive and flat out dégoûtant. Obviously the trick is to make the cupcakes as disgustingly sweet as possible so that the kids don't even see the frosting.
We had 24 people in our humble home. Since I am currently training to not be a control freak, I delegated all activities except turkey. My sister and I spent some time making rodanchos (Greek Jewish pumpkin strudel), one of our family favorites. We had food from all corners of the US : green bean casserole and corn casserole from Ohio, stuffing and veggie platter from Michigan, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows from South Carolina , Pumpkin Pie and Mashed potatoes from Pennsylvania, Cornbread and kickass chocolate cupcakes from Missouri via NY.
As with many expats, Thanksgiving is still the one time of year when I get homesick. So being able to come together to ex-pats and other franco-Americans helps bridge the distance. And the kids had fun too. They performed a hari krishna type concert for us complete with tambourine, recorder and shofar. There was no American football game on TV (hell, we don't even have a TV), but it was an awesome day.
Next year though, I'm thinking of renting a place to hold the bash. Cause at the rate we're reproducing, there won't be enough space in my house!
Monday, 29 November 2010
thanksgiving is for....
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4 comments:
Hi there! Our American friends always miss this party like crazy! We went to a Thanksgiving dinner party in Barcelona hosted by an American friend. I loved the turkey, cranberry sauce, cornbread,banana bread and pumpkin pie, only the sweet potatoe and marshmallows weren't a success between the international guests.
LOL! I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes and marshmallows either (I don't think they were allowed in our house when I was a kid).
Glad you enjoyed it!
I recently made cupcakes with frostingn and it's true most French guests found them overly sweet. Same thing with a carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. But I ate it. sounds like a great Thanksgiving bash! Regarding your other post and bilingualism: my husband speaks some English to our daughter. It depends on his mood. But I'm glad he's open to it because it will reinforce her English. Have you seen a big difference now that Suzanne's in school?
Mil, I've noticed that as Suzanne's french has gotten better so has her English because she's trying to say the same thing in both languages (apparently this is a really common thing). The majority langague is actually pulling up the minority language. But it's not called mother tongue for nothing!
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