Expat Thanksgivings

I was just thinking about my Thanksgivings since I left the US. I always get kind of homesick around now. (Or shall I say, I get more homesick than usual?)

The first one, in 2002, we went to London the weekend before Turkey Day to celebrate with Colleen. We got back to Norway the day before Thanksgiving. Thursday morning I got up and decided to go grocery shopping for a small turkey type item and fixings to approximate a dinner here. I got to my car to find it completely fucked up, someone having tried to steal it while I was gone in London. THAT was a bad day. We had no insurance on the car yet, it was still caught up in the customs red tape. It was very expensive to fix and took two months. So we'll consider Thanksgiving 2002 to be a complete wash, shall we?

Thanksgiving 2003 was also in London, we stayed once again at Colleen's and went to see a play, ate at Quaglino's, saw "Love Actually" the day it opened, and I hit the markets at Covent Garden, Spitalfields and Camden. We saw some excellent exhibits at the British Museum and I saw the V&A Gothic exhibit. Colleen took us on some wanderings in her car outside London and we had lunch in this exquisite town called Shere, where they filmed some of the new Bridget Jones movie that is out now. That was a very nice visit, and when we got back to Norway my car was intact. That was a bonus.

Still, that makes two turkey-free Thanksgivings in a row. Did I mention that besides Halloween, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday? I like it because it is only and ever about being with your family and friends, celebrating togetherness, and there is none of the pressure of Christmas presents or New Year's Eve (must have fabulous time! must party like it's 1999!!). Just food and hanging out and chatting. I like that.

This year, well, today, ain't nothing happening. I am making jewelry for a show this weekend. Doing laundry. That's about it. Rich and I will have leftover white bean chicken chili. There's a big pot of it in the fridge.

This weekend, though, my friend Jennifer (Norway Jennifer) is having a bunch of us over for dinner. Poor thing is so stressed about this damn dinner, I almost want to just bring her some pizzas and take the stress off of her. But then she explained the problem: She is Chinese, and in her family they never did turkey, they did chinese food and would get a ham for any westerners that might be afoot. So turkey is pretty mysterious to her, and here she is, for her second big dinner party EVER, making a thanksgiving dinner. That takes some kind of balls, don't it? Even seasoned veterans get nervous about Thanksgiving dinners, so she is definitely taking up a large challenge. I know it will be great, though. She is the sort of person that always makes things work out. I do wish she would calm down a bit. We'll probably all get drunk fairly early on and won't notice much, anyhow!

So, to family and friends in Missouri and Houston and Austin and Orlando and Pennsylvania and Midland and Santa Fe and Europe....Happy Thanksgiving and I totally miss you! Eat some turkey for me (those of you having fried turkey, eat alot for me please) and multiple huggies all around! I send you all the best and wish I was there with you.

Karla

PS Julia, stay away from the tequila and the bushes at your parent's house, please.