a European Thanksgiving celebration

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the creator triumphantly raise.
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us,
Who still guides us on to the end of our days.
let all things now living

Our lives have become hopelessly tangled with the meshing of cultures. It is a beautiful and complicated thing, and on Sunday we were once again witness to it. We invited thirteen friends from church to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, and what started as a simple invitation turned into something magical. From our humorous turkey saga, which brought in the necessary oven complication, to sweet rolls made with my great-grandmother’s recipe which charmed everybody to that unknown orange pie made out of pumpkin, our Thanksgiving proved to be quite an adventure, and a sweet time of fellowship with friends who have become like family.

Humorous turkey saga you ask? We have a good friend in the meat business who hunted up a large turkey for us. Turns out, it was really large. 24 pounds large—and too huge to fit into our tiny Swiss oven. So we cooked it at their house—in France—instead, and ferried it over the border right before the meal. International turkeys at their best.

I am a deeply traditional person when it comes to holidays and food. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter all have their own menus, and when they get flipped around my heart gets anxious. This year, my heart rested easy. The turkey was turkey, the potatoes were mashed to perfection, the yams were glazed in just enough brown sugar, the beans were cooked with bacon and shallots, and the cranberry sauce sat in its dish with a scarlet luster. And it did me good to watch our three year old friend eat almost nothing but rolls, reminding me of when I was little and did the exact same thing every Thanksgiving, because the parents were too busy talking to pay much attention to what the kids were eating.

Sharing those traditions with dear friends was a beautiful thing. We explained our traditions and foods and taught them a little more about the American culture that we love. 

We sat in our house in Switzerland, surrounded by French friends, sharing an American holiday, and we were thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving