Thanksgiving was a hodgepodge of emotions for me. I was missing my family and our traditional celebration and, akin to the last post’s theme, I was scared of spending the holiday alone. It was a ridiculous fear that sporadically loomed around me as I cooked for friends who said they were coming to dinner. But the rest of the time I felt eager to share my cooking and the holiday with people I had befriended here.
I love cooking almost as much as I love eating.
I chose a simple dinner plan with a little Spanish fusion: mashed sweet potatoes with walnuts (porque aparentemente, en la tierra de españa, las pacanas no existen – a southern girl’s Thanksgiving nightmare), green beans with fried onions and a tapas style deli turkey, cheese and bread plate accompanied with homemade deviled eggs. It was very un-Spanish of me to leave out the jamón for tapas, but no one would have eaten the turkey if I hadn’t. One friend brought some cookies from the Monasterio del Corpus Christi and everyone one else brought Spanish booze.
A couple of friends asked me how Thanksgiving came to be and what exactly is celebrated. I told them bits of the cheery kid story I knew from school, but mentioned it leaves out some darker facts. I told them I cherish the holiday because it’s always such a great celebration with loved ones I don’t regularly see.
I didn’t get to see those relatives this year, but this Thanksgiving turned out to be particularly special for a lot of other reasons.
I felt so much gratitude as I looked around the table at these people I hadn’t known for very long -and who were all just meeting each other for the first time- come together to share the unfamiliar occasion with me.
Shortly after dinner, my sister Skyped in as a response to the text I forgot I sent her when one friend requested to meet my family. It was such a beautiful thing to see them and sort of combine our celebrations for a moment.
Stories and jokes spoken in a mix of Spanish, German and English continued through the evening while my friends nibbled on cookies and worked through a second bottle of wine.
The parting was a little emotional because I knew it was likely the last time I’d see them in the flesh. Luckily, things like Skype make it seem like we aren’t so far away.
Travelling solo can be hard, but with the hardest days come the best ones, too. This was one of the best.