Sundsvall,
Midnight Sun Coast,
Sweden
Thursday, November 27, 2008
This was the most different and diverse thanksgiving I have ever experienced. Seeing that Thanksgiving is an American Holiday, no one in Europe celebrates it or even knows what it's purpose is. I didn't want it to be just another day when I knew my family and friends would be all together celebrating over a delicious feast. Together Jana and I created our own Thanksgiving table for our friends. Most at the table had never heard of it and it's purpose so we were happy to share with them our tradition of the American culture. The turkey in the market was a bit too costly and too frozen for us to make on Thanksgiving day so we compromised with 2 small chickens. Jana and I have never cooked a whole dinner for anyone before in our lives so we were nervous about how our impression of Thanksgiving would portray to our friends. I made a green bean casserole, but when I went to start it we had no cream of mushroom soup and jana can't eat the lactose in the cream. So I went down to the store to get some lactose free cream and made my own cream of mushroom soup. It actually turned our pretty dang good with fried onions on top and everything. Jana did great at cooking the chickens and sewing them up with skewers, we use what we have available. I made a fruit salad with vanilla pudding that turned out to be a bit more massive then planned but still delicious. Including me and another American we had at our table a Nepalese man, two Kurdish friends, One Irish man and my best friend from Germany all celebrated together the day, by sharing around the table what we are thankful for. I also did an activity to teach them about the tradition, where they each read a piece of paper as part of the Thanksgiving story. After a late evening of entertaining, Jana and I were planned to leave for Gothenberg at 7 in the morning.
