A "Proper" Thanksgiving!!

Unfortunately, as much as we would have loved too, we could not spend Thanksgiving with our families due to that silly ocean seperating us! Instead, we were able to celebrate our American holiday with our extended British family! Danny and I decided to go all out and put on a "proper" spread so they could get a real sense of what we do on Thanksgiving. There were no parades or football (unless you count soccer!) on the tv, so we put all of our efforts into the food! I prepared some of my favorite family dishes and then I even tried a few new things!!

I had to order my turkey a few weeks ago so I could guarantee I would get it from Beijing. I could only get a 16 1/2 pound bird due to oven space!! That sweet bird cost me almost $65, but it was worth every penny! It was imported straight from the good ole USA! My ayi thought it was the funniest thing that I was going to cook this huge bird. Remember, most locals don't have ovens and if they do, they are more like toaster ovens, so they would only eat turkey at a restaurant and that is even very difficult to find! In the end, the bird was lovely and moist - even though Danny is trying to tell me that I cooked it upside down!!

This is the inside of my tiny oven!! Obviously, I had to plan the other dishes carefully because the bird took up the entire space!! Happily, carving the turkey!

I also attempted my first pumpkin pie, which was shockingly easy and very tasty!! The kids loved it, probably because of the whip cream on top, but they ate it all!!

The kids watched movies and played the Wii while the adults ate until we could not move and then proceeded to "teach" each other about our countries!! This was after a few bottles of wine had been consumed so you can only imagine the ideas that were being thrown around!! It must have gotten intense because I ended up with two huge British books the next day!! Hehe!!

There was tons of food, but more than that, there was tons of love and thankfulness in our house just as if we were back in the US! We have so much to be thankful for this year and many days go by when I feel I am undeserving of the many blessings in my life!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!