Happy Slapsgiving

Since my parents were coming to visit me over actual Thanksgiving, I had an early Thanksgiving party with my flat the Thursday before Thanksgiving (This sentence has to many "Thanksgivings" in it). I never noticed how much effort it took to shop for dinner. I mean, I knew what an effort it was to make Thanksgiving dinner but I mean shopping. Really? Anyway I travelled from store to store but found green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, things to make pecan pie with, and turkey. The turkey was 16 pounds (so expensive) but it was worth it.

Thursday evening, around four, I  started cooking the meal. Ivan helped make the stuffing, Julie baked the pecan pie, Bryony brought a vegetable dish, I monitored the turkey, and Cal helped with the decorations. I tried to show him how to draw a hand turkey but I don't know if it makes the same impression it makes on a 5 year old. Cal is so crafty though and the decorations were great. We made a paper chain and wrote down everything we were thankful for. Everyone asked me why we were doing this and I told them, "It's Thanksgiving, that's why!"

 

So Ivan, Bryony, Julie, Julie's friends, Cal, Calum, Alicia, Reece, John, Bram, Gordon, Stewart, Sorcha, and I had Thanksgiving dinner. It was so fun. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for again. My friends from outside the United Kingdom were so happy to experience Thanksgiving. Since I was the only American, they were only able to experience my kind of Thanksgiving. I never realized how many different Thanksgiving traditions different families have. Mine usually entails me watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade or going on the Turkey Trot, helping my mom with food, getting ready, going to my grandparent's house or having them come over to ours, eating dinner, playing football or playing a board game, or walking Marley, and then watching some Christmas episodes. But other people have different things they do on Thanksgiving. Oh, and I have to have pecan pie, especially Mamaw's pecan pie.

So after dinner, the people that didn't cook cleaned up while we all played touch football. Bram, John, Reece, and Gordon were on one team, and Alicia, Cal, Calum, and I were on another team. Surprisingly, Gordon knew a lot about American football and there team were the Packers. My team weren't the most confident sports team so we were named the "Cuddly Cowboys" (after the Dallas Cowboys). Although we had the most spirit, my team did not score a single touchdown. Even after we switched around the teams a little bit because the Cuddly Cowboys were so horrible, my new team didn't score a touchdown! It was ironic that the only American playing football was so horrible! At the end I was able to score and "honorary" touchdown. But everyone was done with football because they wanted to watch Love Actually.

Just had to include my favorite scene, and for that matter one of the best scenes of any movie

We watched Love Actually, because every American knows that Thanksgiving signals Christmas :D. We transformed our kitchen into a movie theater. We brought in our big sofa chairs and sat in rows around the computer. Most of everyone had seen the movie and were dying to watch it. It was one of my most memorable moments of the semester. Although the Thanksgiving party ended early, I had to rush to bed in order to catch my train to London to meet up with my family!

It was a really memorable Thanksgiving. It was hard to be away from home because of my love of traditions. Although I was in a train during actual Thanksgiving, my make-shift Thanksgiving was one of my best Thanksgivings ever. I missed my family so much but while I have been here, my flat has become my home away from home, my new family.