Just curious - we were in France for Xmas one year, but that holiday was celebrated so it wasn't a big deal. How do you celebrate Thanksgiving, a US holiday? Any trouble finding the traditional ingredients? Turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries, etc? Please share

I go to work, it's not a holiday here and I frankly don't really care that much. Without family here, what's the point?

We have British friends who lives in France now. They lived in the US for a couple of years and loved the Thanksgiving holiday so much they celebrate it every year in France.

This year, my plans are to walk the cocker in the am, then catch a train to London, have lunch at a Mayfair sushi restaurant, check out the newly remodeled Fortnum & Mason's store, maybe window shop a little on Bond Street, perhaps take in a small part of the National Gallery, go to St. Pancras train station and have a drink at the world's longest champagne bar, then tube back to Paddington and head home. DH will be working in Brussels, so he'll probably stop by a neighborhood restaurant for a light meal.

i used to celebrate thanksgivng three times every november.(Valencia, Spain). i used to call home to tell my family every day what we were having!

friday night with good friends at one of our homes.. saturday at another friendsŽ, and then sunday i helped organize the traditional american club turkey dinner for over 100 people.

In all those years, my USA family never came for those dates. But when you live abroad PERMANENTLY, your friends are always "replacing" family at birthdays, anniversaries and hospital visits.

it was a lot of fun and work.. and helped not to miss family so much.

no problem getting turkey. they are delicious and tender.stuffing is homemade.. no mixes or pepperidege farm croutons!
sweet potatoes, also no problem.
and all the pies are homemade by ourselves. shelled pecans appear and disappear.. and there are no FRESH cranberries.

we can get cranberry sauce now at local shops.. so all in all.. we just make what is easy to find and frankly, our thanksgiving meals here are fantastic.

now, with one dinner, it is enough. i no longer organize the big club dinner, and have not gone for a few years . this year we will go saturday night again to a good friendŽs house. probably about 14 people. our two adult children will join us.

the only missing ingredient is mom.. (dad) and the brothers, nieces, nephews, great nieces, cousins.. etc. etc....family.

enjoy your family.. no matter how disfunctional and opinionated and seemingly self-centered they SEEM.

i am enjoying the funny and true stories on the other thread, arenŽt you?

Thanks for sharing. Our DD is considering going abroad for her junior college year in Fall 2008 (India/Israel) and is having a very hard time celebrating holidays without family.

Lincasonova, funny that you mention the comments about dysfunctional families. We don't seem so dysfunctional to DD now that she hasn't seen us since August and she seems to appreciate us much more since she left for college in Fall 2006. I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder!

My family was never very impressed by the Thanksgiving hoopla, and none of us really liked turkey anyway. Also, we were completely unfazed by the spiritual element of the occasion. By the time I was ten, we had moved on to a simple roast chicken or a crab & shrimp boil to celebrate the occasion. Ever since I left the US, I have just ignored Thanksgiving.

I celebrated Thanksgiving with another US expat last Saturday. We had the works. Other Swiss were invited as well. They loved the stuffing but didn't really care for the pumpkin pie. I wouldn't dare serve sweet potatoes. It would freak out the locals here.

aliska..

age + a little suffering + real life experiences make that happen!

Linda , those pies of yours make me a little envious Maybe I should visit Valencia for Thanksgiving, LOL

Well, we are not exactly expats, but we have been traveling in Europe for almost 15 months and this will be our second Thanksgiving in a row in Andalucia Spain.

Here we are last year:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/6...3759C11B0.html

We make a traditional feast of Turkey with all the fixings. I even brought the stuff for pumpkin pie that I am finally going to be able to make this year.

My first pie.


Last year we were in a very old traditional village house, but this year we are in a brand new place, so the oven will be a breeze.

It costs almost nothing to have groceries delivered here, so my kitchen is beyond full, ready for the big day.

We will make lots of calls home via webcam and focus on all that we have to be grateful for.

All the ingredients seem to be here except brown sugar and pumpkin pie filling stuff , but I brought those with me for our thanksgiving and xmas meals.

Instead of a can of whip cream, I will have to whip up the heavy cream myself. Instead of buying a premade pie crust, I will also have to make that from scratch.

Yummm...can't wait!

In London - I am going to my child's school to talk about American Thanksgiving and do a craft with them. We are hosting about 15 of my husband's American colleagues for a traditional dinner Thursday night. It will be catered except the items I will make - the stuffing (Pepridge Farm which I order from skyco.uk.com) cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and apple pie. Can't find pecans this year. Many of these Americans are young and single and have no family here.

WTNow.. they have crusts in the fridge area that are rolled. come in long narrow box. "la cocinera" makes one as does "nestle".
called PATE BRISE.

try a health food store for brown sugar.

found pecans at a german store last month .. my daughter used them for some brownies not knowing they were the only ones i had for her favorite pie!!

she is out of luck!

happy thanksgiving everyone!

WTnow, what a charming letter and your little Mozart is adorable. I don't even know you but I so enjoyed your writing. thanks for posting it.

My parents buy brown sugar at the supermarket (Mercadona).

Well a good start is watching this greeting from the Europe Railway:

http://downloads.raileurope.com/holi...tmas_card.html

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

gruezi

I'm a member of the Stuttgart International Women's Club and we're having a huge Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at a member's house...in addition to Americans we'll have German, English, Swedish, French, Australian, Malaysian, and probably a few other nationalities represented - on the order of 40 people. Our hosts are providing the turkey and stuffing and the rest of us are bringing everything else. I think the turkeys are coming from one of the U.S. military bases. We'll have the works, including cranberry sauce (I found fresh cranberries at my regular supermarket) and pumpkin pie (canned pumpkin is a bit harder to find, but not impossible).

It's after midnight here, and I've just finished four batches of cranberry/orange relishes--all made from scratch and my colleagues order an extra. (I add grated orange zest, chopped up orange, a bit of honey, nutmeg, cinnamon and a jigger of brandy. They're great baked into muffins or with yogurt.)

UK supermarkets started carrying fresh cranberries. I found Libby's tinned pumpkins but having difficulty finding Carnation evaporated milk in my neighbourhood. Oh, well, the concept of sweet vegetable-based pudding is never popular here, so I've made pumpkin soup instead.

We usually get only 2-3 more couples, and I hate having barely-eaten turkey in my fridge for the whole week afterwards. Last year, I did roasted duck (oriental flavour) which was a big hit, this year, another couple is doing the bird/stuffing duty.

Since Thursday is a working day, we all tend to shift to the following Friday dinner or weekend brunch. I've been using the same tissue-paper turkey ornament (over the last 5 yrs since we can't find one here). We named him Bartlet (of West Wing).

i am getting a little jealous with these fresh cranberry stories.

i just spent the past two hours on the phone.. as usual for me at holiday times, enjoying every detail of how mom (CVG)and then SIL and brother (ORD), etc. will be spending the day, and with whom.

it is so nice to be able to chat away nowadays. the 5-euro phone card i use keeps telling me "you have over a thousand minutes for this call"!!

at first i thought it was a mistake, but this is the third card since july.. it usually expires before i can finish using it!

IŽll be in Charleston, WV tomorrow. Where should I go for Turkey-Dinner? Is it really worth it or is it like chicken mc nuggets, just bigger? Greetings from PA. Shopping is great by thw way, just that things get cheaper every day. I donŽt dare buying much.