Thanksgiving in a winter wonderland

The thing that I was most excited about, when the exchange began to sink in, was being able to celebrate Thanksgiving. Years of watching Friends (and seeing Monica's spread) and reading American books had wet my appetite for this most American of holidays (and pumpkin pie of course). On top of this, my class were very excited about it too, giving me lots of details about pie, pie and more pie as well as wishbone pulling and having a great feast with friends and family.

Finally the day arrived! We started this morning with the Greely hockey turkey trot 5K from the high school, braving slippy paths and listening to the ice crunch beneath our sneakers as we dashed for the finish line. Sadly, no-one was dressed up as a turkey!

With that mission accomplished, it was on to a much harder task...eating the feast. Sarah had invited me to join her family at her sister's house and so we set off with various vegetables and desserts to add to the table. I decided that I couldn't quite face tofurkey as it really didn't look appetising so it was vegetables, cranberries and stuffing all the way for me. Very nice it was too!

All was eclipsed, however, by the much anticipated pie course...pumpkin (it's traditional), pecan (it smelt so delicious when it was baking yesterday), butterfinger (well, it's an American candy bar made into pie) and a few escaped cherries from the cherry pie (they looked too good to miss!). I had to resist apple and chocolate as my stomach refused to expand any more. No thermals needed, I have all the blubber I need!!

After dinner, as we lay about and groaned, it was game time. I did incredibly badly when the round centred on African-American politicians and early Beatles songs (much to everyone's disappointment in me as a British person), however, I redeemed myself by excelling on...wait for it...The British Royal Family!!!!! I could name them all. And I thought I wasn't a royalist!

Thanks to Sarah's family for making me feel so welcome. I had a great first Thanksgiving and can't wait to celebrate next year with family and friends at home. I'm already planning the pie menu...