Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American family and friends. I hope that you all had a wonderful day of giving thanks with loved ones whether in person, via phone, text etc. Sometimes we can’t be together in person on the holidays but we can always be there with our hearts.
I continued my week of gratitude yesterday. I enjoyed writing the blog posts but more importantly taking the time to reflect on what I am grateful for. Seven days wasn’t long enough…my list is much longer than that.
This year I was able to not only get some inspiration from Pinterest but I actually had the time and energy to create some decorations. 🙂 A huge change from my previous life. First off was sprigs of fresh rosemary that we cut from the vineyard property. I printed a simple “Thankful” and placed one at each place setting.
Then I printed out some letters and made this sign.
We also gathered some acorns and pine cones and I arranged them around a candle in one of my favorite bowls.
A few little touches with some of our favorite decorations. A “Happy Thanksgiving” sign. Pilgrim Frogs that had belonged to my Mom. And a tablecloth that she had embroidered years ago. Simple decorations that made it feel like home to me.
So I told you about our ordering a turkey in this post. Well, Tuesday we went to Mitjans in Moja to pick up the bird. Wow! An 11 kg (24 lb) turkey is HUGE! We immediately wondered whether it would fit on our grill (where we normally cook our turkey) or in the oven. When I put it on the back seat of the car I asked Bob if I should put the seat belt on it. HUGE!
When we got home we tried putting it on the grill. Wouldn’t fit. Then we tried the oven. Wouldn’t fit. So, we had to remove the legs and the wings to make it fit. We would just cook those separately. Okay, so it wasn’t the picture perfect turkey then but we had no choice.
Our menu included turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade dressing/stuffing, cranberry sauce and Catalan Peas.
Oh and I made two pumpkin pies. Our Catalan friends didn’t seem to sure about this until we told them what the other ingredients were. Lol. Big hit!
The turkey cooked on the grill in 3 hours! Much faster than we expected. It turned out absolutely perfect. The stuffing was the best I ever made.
Bob told them what Thanksgiving is about. We shared stories – translated between English and Catalan. We shared laughter…a universal language.
It has been a year of many changes in our lives. We missed being with family back home but WhatsApp made photo sharing and wishes of a Happy Thanksgiving easy to share.
Remember to take time to reflect on what is truly important and remember to give thanks throughout the year.
The Winery Woman 