Day 338 -- Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  A very American, very cozy kind of day.  Because this was our first Thanksgiving in Denmark, and because I was still home convalescing, my department offered to bring Thanksgiving to us yesterday.

Prior to my surgery I circulated a list of "traditional" Thanksgiving foods and everyone signed up to bring something, as well as a few of their own additions.  I couldn't completely NOT make something so I did bake pecan bars last week and froze them.  Collin cooked his first ever turkey, as well as the gravy and stuffing, and some sweet potatoes as well.  The result was perfect.  There were 16 of us total.  Someone brought a folding table and a number of extra chairs and we were all able to sit together in our dining room.

Although I did set the table prior to everyone's arrival, and prepared a few simple appetizers, I didn't lift a finger once everyone arrived... in fact, every time I tried to, whatever was in my hands was quickly taken away and I was told to sit back down.  My group did an awesome job helping Collin set everything up and clean up afterwards.   I felt incredibly lazy, but thankful and appreciative as well.

Our menu consisted of a perfectly moist turkey with gravy, delicious stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, a few salads, green beans, a vegetable medley and bread/crackers.  Dessert involved an amazing pumpkin pie (made with actual pumpkins and not canned pumpkin...I didn't know such a thing existed! and what work!) with whipped cream, apple pie with homemade vanilla ice cream, pecan bars, and citronfromage (a Danish lemon mousse).

Collin's resting turkey

Partially set table before Collin and I decided to skip paper products and use actual dishes and silverware.

In between dinner and dessert one guest brought entertainment.  We played a game around the table where you had to unwrap a present as fast and neatly as you could, with the first person to identify the gift winning it.  The catch was, prior to unwrapping it you had to don a winter hat, scarf, and huge skiing gloves and then use a knife and a fork to carefully unwrap it.  Meanwhile the person next in line was doing their best to roll a 6 with a die.  Once they rolled the six, you had to pass the clothing and gift on to them for their attempt, while the next person in line tried to roll a six.  As you can imagine, the gift was wrapped in many layers of wrapping paper and we went around the table multiple times until someone finally got the end of the paper.  It was definitely a lot of fun!

This was by far the most I had eaten in two weeks and I felt pretty stuffed when I went to bed last night but everything was so delicious and it really felt like Thanksgiving.  Who knows, maybe this will become a new tradition!  I hope everyone had as wonderful a day as I did.