Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, especially in recent years, has been one of my most favorite days of the year.  My whole family (parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) gathers together at one of my aunts' houses for a big meal and lots of fun.  I've never been so much a fan of Thanksgiving food, but I always look forward to seeing family members that I don't get to see as often as I'd like.  This year I had to miss all of that.

Life in London is so extraordinary in most respects, but it does make you realize all of the times you might have previously taken for granted.  I never in a million years would have thought that it would be me who was absent from the family fun, but this year it was.  As such, I found myself missing all of the noise and laughter of my large, loud family and even craving foods I normally would have avoided in the buffet line.

Moping around London wasn't an option so I decided to take matters into my own hands.  The Saturday before Thanksgiving I prepared my own miniature Thanksgiving feast of roast chicken, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing, and canned cranberry sauce.  I had so much fun spending the day in the kitchen cooking and creating!

Thanksgiving Dinner

After a long day in the kitchen I was prepared for the meal to be edible at best, but it actually turned out quite well; I was genuinely surprised!  Sitting down to a home cooked meal was fantastic, and I had so many leftovers that I didn't have to cook the rest of the week!

The Monday before Thanksgiving I went to see The Bank Perry live at Koko.  I have been following the trio, which consists of siblings Kimberly, Reid, and Neil Perry, since their debut single "If I Die Young" came out in 2010.  I've tried to see them on several previous occasions, but either all of their tickets have been sold out or their show was on a date that conflicted with my school schedule.  Needless to say, I was beyond excited to finally get an opportunity to see them live. 

The Band Perry at Koko
19 November 2012

Neil Perry, Kimberly Perry, and Reid Perry of The Band Perry

The Band Perry gave a very high energy, fun performance, but the acoustics at Koko were pretty terrible.  Having seen The Lumineers show at that venue the week before I was expecting that the acoustics would be good, but for some reason the sound technician seemed to be having a lot of trouble that night, especially with the volume.  At times Kimberly's voice could barely be heard over the combination of instruments being used. 

Kimberly Perry

The show was much flashier than I had anticipated.  Kimberly's voice is incredible alone and would have been much better showcased without all of the light tricks and distractingly heavy guitar and drums.  Overall, the group put on a great performance, but in the future I would be more interested in seeing one of their acoustic shows rather than a full-band show.

Back to Thanksgiving!  I work with a group of American expats so I was not alone in missing out on the Thanksgiving festivities.  Since it's not a British holiday the majority of us were scheduled to spend the day in the office.  One of our colleagues suggested that in order to bring some normalcy to the day we make our own Thanksgiving lunch.  We each volunteered to either bring a dish or throw in a few pounds to spread out the cost of producing the lunch.  I volunteered to bring a cranberry-apple casserole that my aunt always makes and that my cousin and I absolutely love.  Ann and I also volunteered to pick up the turkeys from Whole Foods.

The casserole was surprisingly easy to make; a special thanks to Aunt Bailey for sharing her recipe!  I went to the store the night before, but I forgot one key ingredient (butter) so I had to make an emergency grocery store run the next morning.  The casserole smelled absolutely incredible coming out of the oven!  I was nervous that it would cool off too much on the way to the office, but it seemed to do just fine!

Ann and I had an interesting time picking up the turkeys from Whole Foods.  First, we were under the impression that the turkeys would be warm, so we were a little confused when the Whole Foods staff kept trying to give us warming instructions.  It all made more sense when the turkeys came out cold; thankfully they were fully cooked.  Next, we were meant to take a taxi to work, but it didn't seem like we were going to be allowed to take the grocery cart out of the store, and with two huge turkeys and a casserole to carry we were a little worried about making it into a taxi without dropping anything.  We ended up being escorted by a member of the staff who waited with us as we hailed a taxi; I'm pretty sure she thought we were going to run off with the cart, never to return.  The taxi driver did not seem the least bit excited to play host to Ann, myself, and two turkeys.  He gave us the most skeptical look I have ever seen when I assured him that the turkeys would not leak in his precious van.  

We somehow managed to wrangle the turkeys, my casserole, and ourselves up to the 9th floor of our building.  The turkeys and casserole were the last missing pieces of a huge Thanksgiving feast!  It was so much fun to see how excited everyone in the office was as our colleagues carved the turkeys and got the meal prepared to serve.  The buffet included: turkey, two different kinds of potatoes, several varieties of stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry-apple casserole, bread, a Spanish omelet, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, cookies, and a whole host of other goodies.  We all spent the rest of the day complaining about how full we were and struggling to keep our eyes open!

That evening I met up with a friend from Webb who was studying abroad in Rome and spending the weekend in London.  It was so nice to go to dinner with a friend from home and be able to spend Thanksgiving with someone I knew.  We had a delicious dinner at Bistro Benito and spent the evening talking and wandering around West London.  I hadn't seen Shannon in several years so we had lots to talk about and catch up on!

When I got home that night I knew that my parents would be at our family Thanksgiving dinner so I decided to call and see how everything was going.  I was happily passed between all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins!  Getting to speak to everyone made me feel like I was part of the day and made me a lot less sad that I was missing out on all of the fun.

The older I get the more I realize how much I have to be thankful for.  This year, I am especially thankful for my family, good friends (both old and new), amazing opportunities, and good health.  I could not have made this move without the love, support, and encouragement of so many people in my life, especially my parents, and I will be forever grateful for all that they have pushed me to do and will continue to push me to do in the future.

Next up in The London Era: My fabulous trip to Paris!  Stay tuned!

Caitlin