Happy Thanksgiving!

Feliz día Acción de Gratis 

It's been a whirl wind of a week. I'm missing home and the traditional days off, extended weekend, lounging, football watching, grand dinners with the family, Black Friday shopping with my mom, and sleeping in till half the day is gone. 

Time doesn't slow down for our holidays here in Murcia. The lack of promotional advertisements and the haunting of pruebas (tests) this week makes Thanksgiving seem irrelevant. In honesty it was hard to feel the spirit (it later came when the feast begun).

The Americans and I got together and started the attendee’s lists for the well known holiday. There were British, Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, French and probably more! It quickly grew from 20 to 30 to almost 50 people! My friend and I looked at each other "I don't think one turkey is going to be enough." Haha 

We organized it at an English girl's flat. Very large, 9th floor, great view of the city, and neighbors didn't mind the noise. :) It was perfect. We asked everyone to bring a side dish, drinks, or plates/utensils/napkins. We shared links of traditional side dishes, but a few people brought their own specialties. It was a multicultural potluck with a heavy Thanksgiving theme. Haha I loved trying everything (some people got really creative). And also learned the traditions of the other American's (for example: cornbread in stuffing? Never heard that before till my East coast friends introduced me to it. Slightly sweeter but still delicious). 

It was hard to find a couple things. We were missing cranberry sauce, franchise onions, and pumpkin mix (we substituted with sweet potatoes and made a pie similar in taste :)). We got the turkey though! Rachel and I were preparing it all day long. We had to order it at the grocery store. It was still fresh with a couple of feathers needing plucking. We lathered it up in butter, lemon, salt, and tons of herbs, then slow roasted it for a good chunk of the day. 

DESSERTS!<3

But what's Thanksgiving without a few stumbles along the way. We definitely scrambled to find tin trays to cook the turkey. We ran out of gas when making the gravy (our final item and we were already an hour late!) and had to run upstairs to the neighbors I knew and use their stove. We used every odd ball item as a tub-a-ware to transport it to the party, and showed up fashionably late to a starving crowd only to realize no one there knew how to crave a turkey! (All the men were foreign and the other American men were either late or had never been passed the blade and honored to do the task back home). So we winged it! And in the lighting, we had a panic attack--it looked under cooked!! After all that work and it's undercooked!?! I took it to the kitchen to see that it was just dark meat and tinted lighting from the other room. The turkey was fine. So we craved it up and devoured it. Can't say I did a fabulous job craving it, but I can say it was delicious--juicy and flavorful. ;) 

I wanted to Skype my family, but was too caught up in the mayhem of the party. I'll see you all soon though. :) No te preocupes. 

I missed my family. I missed my friends. But I had a fantastic dinner here as well. Once we arrived at the dinner and I was surrounded by "a family," it felt like Thanksgiving. I'm blessed to have such great people in my life (here and back home). Love and miss you all. 

Happy late Thanksgiving. 

....And let the Christmas promotions begin!