Thanksgiving Celebration 2019

Well, November has now come and gone. Poof…just like that it is December. I haven’t been in front of my laptop much in the past week and a half so I am now trying to catch up.

Last week we were busy prepping for and celebrating Thanksgiving. Tuesday was spent running around to several different grocery stores getting the last ingredients for the feast. As it was in the States, you can never just go to one store and find everything that you want/need. One of the most difficult things to find was one of those aluminum trays for roasting. When we finally did find a store that had them we bought three so next year we wouldn’t have to search again.

The first stop was the wonderful butchers, Mitjans, in a nearby village, Moja. We had stopped in a couple of weeks earlier to order our turkey. As Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here we can’t just walk into any store and pick up a turkey. There is a plus to that because now we order a fresh turkey and wow what a difference. When we arrived, Montse told us that she had tried to contact us twice via telephone to tell us that the farmer couldn’t deliver to her on Tuesday the 22nd. It would be on Wednesday. For some reason, the calls didn’t come through so we didn’t know. I will admit that both Bob and I were trying to figure out Plan B if for some reason it wasn’t delivered. Anyway, Montse told us that she would phone us the next morning once the farmer had delivered “the duck.” WHAT?! No, turkey. Pavo is a turkey in Spanish and Pato is a duck in Spanish. Thankfully, she just said the wrong thing when she was speaking English and didn’t order the wrong thing. This actually made us all laugh as we all remembered our first experience of ordering a turkey for our first Thanksgiving in Spain. You can read the post here. Quite funny.

Wednesday morning started with a phone call from Montse at Mitjans that our turkey had arrived. Yippee!!! Bob headed out to pick up the turkey and to buy some bread from the local bakery for the stuffing. Then back out later in the day to exchange the gas bottle for the grill as that is how we cook our turkey. While he did that, I was busy getting the house ready. Setting up the tables and washing glasses, etc. We wanted to get as much prepped on Wednesday so that Thursday wasn’t as crazy.

On my morning walk, I picked up some fallen leaves and cut some rosemary and a couple of olive branches. I tied them together with a little twine. Simple Autumn decoration.

Thursday, THANKSGIVING!  A busy morning of making pastry for pumpkin pies and getting other things prepped. Bob put the 6.5kg (just over 14 pounds) turkey on the grill at 11am and it cooked in only two hours. It was absolutely perfect. So moist. We also made mashed potatoes, Catalan Peas (recipe here), and my Dad’s stuffing recipe.

Our friends started arriving just before 2pm. A total of eleven of us for Turkey dinner! As it is not a holiday here we are always thrilled that our friends make time to share this holiday with us. Some of them did have to work so they came and went as needed. Now, I tell you that for general information but also to tell you this part of our day…

Because friends were coming and going, we had one door of our gate open. This is a gate large enough to drive through. Our front door was closed but unlocked. We live in a small village. Eighteen houses and a winery. When we tell locals where we live, 99% of them have no idea where this village is. Yes, people do visit the village. Both locals and tourists but there are no cafes, no stores, nothing except the winery. So…we are sitting here having dinner and I am at the end of the table with my back to the door. We are expecting one more friend to arrive at some point. The door opens and everyone else at the table gets a curious look on their faces. They all know the other friend who is still to arrive so I guess it wasn’t him and turn around in my chair to see a total stranger standing there. Now, to be honest, he had just as curious a look on his face…a bit bewildered. Like he had walked into the wrong place. Which, he obviously did. A quick conversation of who he was looking for led to someone (I can’t remember exactly who) leading him outside to point him in the right direction. Now, I know it is Thanksgiving, but why the heck would you walk into someone’s home. He didn’t ring the doorbell on the gate (where a small sign says “Privado”,  nor did he ring the doorbell at the front door, nor did he knock on the door. He simply walked in. I just don’t understand it. And guess what! This is the third person that has just simply walked into our home looking for other people. One of them was looking for the Marquesa. Highly unlikely that you would find the Marquesa living in our humble home…she lives (part-time) in the grande white house in the village.

Anyway, after this shocking visit, we all returned to our fabulous feast and joyous celebration. We ate, drank, and laughed a lot. When we introduced our friends here to Thanksgiving and explained its significance they embraced it. I think that now they all look forward to it as much as Bob and I do. We all enjoy the time together and the traditional food. Thanks to our friend Hanna (who always makes sure we do this), we go around the table and everyone says what they are thankful for. ♥

These wonderful friends of ours also came bearing gifts. Wine, Cava, Poinsettias, a beautiful glass Christmas tree and lights that you place inside, and Virginia made us an Indian Teepee incense burner.

We truly have so much to be thankful for. ♥♥