Happy Thanksgiving

Yes,  I know, Thanksgiving was actually two days ago, but some of us aren't so lucky to have the week off of school, so I'm celebrating today. 

Last Monday, in the thanksgiving spirit, I cooked a pumpkin pie for my language class and gave a short presentation on the holiday. Everyone thought the idea of pumpkin pie was incredibly weird and they were surprised when they found it delicious. (Nora, thanks for that crust recipe everyone thinks I'm like this incredible baker but really I just have the gosh darndest greatest crust). Fun comments that I got were "Wait, was Pocahontas part of thanksgiving?" "I thought people dressed up on thanksgiving? What about the candy?" and my personal favorite, "How can thanksgiving have been founded in the 1600's, if America has only existed for like a hundred years?"

Today, we invited Alex's parents, Gisela and August, over for thanksgiving dinner, and since yesterday afternoon I've been slaving over a hot stove, except not really, because I actually ended up having a lot of fun. Yesterday I made Aunt Jenny's famous cranberry sauce and I baked a pumpkin pie (and I cooked up some pumpkin seeds and let me tell you it's amazing how fast those disappear around here). Today I made green bean casserole, stuffing, and mashed potatoes while Alex cooked a turkey and Julia decorated the apartment for Christmas. I spent most of the day cooking and it was actually incredibly cathartic and I feel as if a baked all my problems away. I gotta say, it's beautiful, our thanksgivings at home, when everybody makes a little bit of the meal and it's shared with all your loved ones, but there is also something really wonderful about cooking the entire meal by yourself for the people you care about to appreciate. I dunno, it's all nice. I love thanksgiving. 

Things I'm especially thankful for today:

• That I've always been surrounded by family on thanksgiving, usually my real family, but two years ago my exchange student family while in Patagonia and this year my wonderful german family. Family is a beautiful thing. 
• That I've always had dads/uncles around to cook the turkey because wow 'honey can you please answer the door for me, I've got my hand up a turkey' is something I would like to never say ever. 
• Yeah that's all I got