There are four of us girls from America living in a sizable house. So we were ambitious and decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner at our place. We wanted to invite other foreigners and Khmer folks to share our traditions with them. So we did!
I taught my students a bit about Fall and we cut out lots of leaves on colored paper. I was totally honest with them, and I told them all about Thanksgiving and our feast and by cutting they would be helping me decorate my house for the party. They looked great hanging in garlands on the windows.
We borrowed plates, silverware and extra chairs from our school. We even borrowed the projector. One of the girls downloaded the Macy's Day Parade and a Charlie Brown special (ingenious idea). We projected that onto one of the walls. Our guests watched a little of the parade before dinner was ready.
Of course there was the usual activity in the kitchen. Anyone who's ever been involved in producing a Thanksgiving feast knows what that's like so I'll spare you the details. I'll only say that it involved a lot of sweat. But Rebecca had music playing and reviewed the cooking schedule at regular intervals to keep everything organized. Danielle was a great rover and kept the dishes washed and was an extra pair of hands when needed.
I was in charge of the 'turkey'. Turkeys are not common here. You can buy them in the store... for about $40. So Khana and I walked down to the main road and bought our 'turkeys' from the grilling man on the street. She bargained us a slightly better price. When you buy a chicken here you get the whole animal. But we Westerners do not like the whole animal, so I asked if he could chop off the heads and feet for us first. One of Khana's neighbors happened to be shopping for rotisserie chicken at the same time so we gave him the perfectly good roasted chicken feet and heads to take home. Waste not, want not.
Back at home everything was coming out the oven and onto the table. As we gathered around the table, we gave a brief history of Thanksgiving, "It was the 1600's in the land of England...." Our Australian coworker gave the blessing and the feasting commenced!
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| Our Khmer friends brought sweet, sticky rice treats to share |
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| Liz, our AP, made REAL apple and pumpkin pies from scratch. They were beauties, and made it really feel like Thanksgiving |
It was a feast to be thankful for.
