xinamarie

It's always strange to celebrate American holidays in another country.

For each Thanksgiving day in London, I've either had lectures or work. It's hard to observe the day when the majority of people in the country don't even know that it's special. (Not that I expect them to, of course!) Just thinking back on the last few years, I've celebrated Thanksgiving in a variety of ways:
1995: I was a student. The international office did a Thanksgiving lunch (which was pretty awful, actually, but the thought was wonderful). All of the American students in my hall made a Thanksgiving dinner together and invited everyone on our floor to join us. No one was brave enough to attempt a turkey (and they were mostly vegetarians anyway), but the rest of the meal turned out very well.

1997: My first T-Day since emigrating. I bought a small turkey joint (there was only the two of us, after all!) and made that for dinner on the Thursday when I got home from work. We went to a friend's Thanksgiving party on the Saturday.

1998: I had to work. Ignored the Thursday entirely, but went to the friend's Saturday dinner again.

1999: Working again. We didn't have turkey on Thursday, and we didn't do anything at the weekend. I don't remember why.

2000: We were invited out to Hawaii, and stopped in LA on our way over, which happened to coincide with Thanksgiving. So pindar and I were able to go to the family Thanksgiving gathering, which was a lot of fun. And Hawaii was incredible! :)

2001: pindar and I had become friends with another Anglo-American couple (an Englishman and American woman, nuala, as per our trend), and we invited them over for dinner on the Thursday. pindar left work early and cooked. It actually turned out pretty well, but we agreed that we couldn't really throw a dinner on the Thursday if we were working.

2002: I had a "Christmas Lunch" sandwich from Pret a Manger. This is a seasonal sandwich they offer for the six weeks up to Christmas, but it has turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, crispy onions and spinach. Apart from being quite tasty, it's a handy Thanksgiving-y lunch! I noticed that Pret had a run on them on the Thursday! We didn't do anything in the evening, although I had wanted to. I suppose we remembered the effort of the dinner the previous year and lacked the energy (and the vacation time) to do it again.

2003: pindar and I went to the Thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral. I'd heard about it before, but had never been able to go. A friend of ours had extra tickets, so we went. I'm so glad we did. It's nice to take the time to recognize the importance of the holiday, especially because I had to work. I baked some Kick-Ass Cranberry Muffins to bribe my office into letting me go. They went down very well. A double batch had disappeared by the time I returned!

I'm on my own tonight (pindar is at a concert), but we're going to a friend's house on Sunday for Thanksgiving dinner. But I had my favorite turkey sandwich for lunch today, and the Thanksgiving service really meant a lot.

Come to think of it, this has been a good year for observing US holidays. We went to a 4th of July barbecue at the US Ambassador's residence. Okay, so I didn't celebrate Presidents' Day or Columbus Day, but getting two big American holidays done, especially in a country where they're not observed, isn't bad!

I'm very grateful for my husband, family and wonderful friends. I love you guys so much. (And those of you in California, I'm looking forward to seeing you soon!)

I am thankful for my life and health. I'm happy to have a job I enjoy.

I am thankful for the experiences, good and bad, that I have had in the last 28 years, because they have made me who I am. And I'm pretty happy with who I am. :)

God bless, and happy Thanksgiving.