Le Thanksgiving en France

happy belated thanksgiving everyone! sorry i didn't write sooner. i haven't been feeling well - long story involving american insurance (aka i don't have american insurance anymore) and running out of prescriptions...and ovaries. no no, not running out of ovaries. ok sorry guys, but a woman is a sacred vessle. and in order to keep that sacred vessel empty there are magical pills. when the pills run out and a woman quits cold turkey, the sacred vessel reacts in a violent and painful way. that is the real story.

anyway, overshare. let's talk about thanksgiving! so on thursday, the actual thanksgiving day, i didn't do much at all during the day. i did laundry and watched a movie. i hung out with emily because it was her birthday. but overall the day did not seem particularly different from any other day. i had a good day but it was pretty normal.

that night emily, caitlin and i went to a thanksgiving dinner organized by one of the only married couples in the assistantship program. they have a stove and a little more space than the normal student cubby hole. it was really fun - there were a few uk assistants who were curious about the holiday which i thought was pretty cool. we had turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. it was pretty great actually. one of the assistants, kristine, made this UNbelievable dip with avacadoes, pomegranate seeds, tomatoes, onions, etc. i ate too much of it because by the time i finished all the thanksgiving food i couldn't move. actually, i do that every year so it was tradition.

there were all kinds of desserts prepared by the brittish assistants. fiona, from scotland, made this really yummy parfait and madeleine from england made an apple crumble with custard sauce over it. there were a few pies but none of them were pumpkin. there was also no cranberry apple crisp. that is NECESSARY for any holiday meal. my mom makes it and the smell alone gets me a little high on life. turns out caitlin's family makes the same thing. she's the only other person i've ever met who knew what i was talking about. we were craving it all night.

em stayed over at our place and we had a little birthday slumber party (mostly slumber, not much party). then we went to see body of lies on friday morning and did a little shopping for cold weather attire. we are all going to amsterdam tomorrow (thursday) until sunday. i can't wait but it is going to be freezing! i think weather.com said something like...ooooh...0 DEGREES! celcius of course. so about 32 for all of you MORONS out there. (you can tell i'm not feeling well because i'm getting snippy)

i need to take a moment and mention the song that just came on my itunes. i have my entire library on shuffle (that's how i roll) which is about 15 days of songs. i didn't even know i had this but "turtle power" by mc hammer just started playing. that's right 80's babies - that's the theme song to the ninja turtles movie. how wonderful!

anyway, saturday was my real thanksgiving. caitlin (whose birthday was on saturday...too many birthdays around thanksgiving) and i went out to fourqueux to have dinner with the matheny's. that is the family i stayed with for the month of september. we were determined to make cranberry apple crisp so we searched high and low for cranberries. they are apparently very american and not easy to find in france. we did, eventually, find them at a vegetable stand and we made our way to the house.

i had never met ted and betsy's oldest daughter, cici, and she was home from thanksgiving which was a nice surprise. we had a lot of fun. by the way, 'we' is me, caitlin, emily, assistant betsy (not to be confused with mama betsy...matheny), sarah and cici. caitlin and i crafted our masterpiece of cranberry apple glory while everyone else chose a project to tackle. cici and emily made homemade stuffing with BAGUETTE! it was amazing. ted focused on the turkey, sarah and assistant betsy cleaned and set up the table and mama betsy made everything else. it was sunny and beautiful outside and we were all sitting at the table laughing and talking while elbow deep in some sort of holiday treat. it was so...perfect!

two other families joined us (oh, ps - mama betsy made homemade pumpkin pies...from real pumpkins! it was real thanksgiving). in total there were 23 people at the dinner table. it was noisy and messy and people were shoulder to shoulder. it was just like home. it made me miss my family. but it also made me feel so at home. i spent thanksgiving with my france family - the people i am growing to love more and more.

so that is my thanksgiving fairy tale. it was wonderful. now i have amsterdam to look forward to. when i get back i will have less than 2 weeks before i go home for christmas. i can't wait! brad's sister, jenna, just invited me to a cookie party the day after i get home. and my brother and i are throwing our anual new years shin dig. and ANDREA IS COMING HOOOOME!!! it's going to be SO GREAT! not even these stupid ovaries can bring me down during the holidays. i hope you are all enjoying life as much as i am. a la prochaine...xoxo.