Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving. The holiday that I love most, that most epitomizes American traditions, embracing family and friends, and being grateful. I wanted to share this with both my new friends here and my students, my school.

Three projects. First, dinner itself, which had to be held on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving Day. Lots of preparations, starting with recipes and then shopping for the most authentic ingredients I could find to truly create "The Meal". Turkey, stuffing, gravy, of course, Mom's recipes, adapted. My cranberry sauce, made for years for my family. Mashed sweet potatoes, a new recipe, (just couldn't go the marshmallow route, no matter how traditional - not mine!) and green beans, an upscale version from my sister. Pumpkin pie AND Wayrm apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. Surprisingly, most ingredients were fairly easy to find, being part of the typical British Christmas dinner - even fresh cranberries, although quite expensive, more than 3 pounds per bag! The most challenging aspects were making my own bread cubes for the stuffing, fried onion rings for the green beans, and the hardest, pumpkin! I had three people or so searching everywhere for canned pureed pumpkin, finally found by Maja. Also, cooking the meal by myself was different. I'm used to company.
All went well, though, aside from the fact that several of the invitees had to cancel at the last minute due to illness, so, lots of leftovers, which was not too great a hardship! Sent some home with the guests, too, part of the Thanksgiving tradition. Maja's husband, Steven, got to hold court as the only man, but seemed to survive the task. We all had a really lovely evening. It was the first Thanksgiving for everyone else and they all seemed to like the premise of a day of thanks, of spending special time with friends and family, eating wonderful food. No football afterwards...
I hope to think that it might even start a new tradition here, a day of giving thanks.








Thanksgiving for my students, somehow squeezed into the spaces between our regular curriculum. I managed to connect it to their Tudor studies and the novel we were reading, taking place at around the same time that the Mayflower landed at Plymouth! We read books, watched online videos, drew pictures, compared Native Americans and Pilgrims, did word searches and crosswords, and culminated it all with an assembly for the school. The kids performed a skit, which I ended up writing, about the first Thanksgiving and how the holiday has evolved. It was great. Every kid had a part, even if it was just one line. It was so gratifying, watching my students teach the rest of the school about a tradition that is so integral to American culture and history.
With such a diverse class, it really represented to me the encompassing inclusion of the holiday. All of the other students in school wrote about something for which they were grateful, and a selection of these were read during the assembly. It was very moving...
Hammad, as Abraham Lincoln, and Osama, Elin and Calum, as Governor, Squanto and Massasoit, were stars. Everyone's performance made me beam with pride.
















Then, the pumpkin pies. Found frozen, rolled-out pie crust. The pie pans do not exist as we know them, but are tart pans, so that's what we had. Flexibility, adaptability is the name of the game. Also had some trouble finding ground cloves and molasses, but treacle worked.
I had decided that the staff would experience pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day, even if it was a work day. After the assembly, we'd all have a taste.
Wednesday night was spent baking, something I used to do a lot of, but not recently. Fortunately, all went smoothly and I went to bed with five pungent, delicious-looking, large pie/tarts awaiting transport in the morning. It was the first time they had tasted sweet, rather than savory, pumpkin, so many were quite surprised by the taste, but pleasantly. I saved one for my students to taste, too. Culture clash, several were fasting for Eid, which was the next day, so their portion was wrapped up for tasting at home after the fast. Most of the kids seemed to really like it, although I did see a few slipped into the bin surreptitiously. Hammad's mother later came to me asking for the recipe, so I was quite pleased.

All in all, a success!