Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Switzerland was interesting. John went to work. The kids went to school. I attended my German class. With the exception of my parents' visit, it would have seemed like any other day. I probably would have ignored the actual holiday and only celebrated over the weekend when we attended an expat Thanksgiving party. Fortunately, my parents were here and it gave me the needed motivation to order a turkey from the butcher (in German!). $125 and 2 weeks later, we had a fresh turkey. One plus for Switzerland: the turkey comes free of any "spare" parts. An almost mistake on my part: I didn't pre-measure. Local friends expressed concern that a 13 pound bird would fit in a Swiss oven. Fortunately, for us, it did. I would have hated to carve up my special "whole" turkey before he even got cooked!

In order to make the dinner a bit more festive, both Abbie and Brendan invited friends to join us. Abbie's friend had seen her first turkey at the Thanksgiving Feast the school held for all the 1st graders the day before, but Brendan's friend had never seen a whole cooked turkey. They seemed to enjoy the meat, but were a bit stumped by the concept of stuffing. It's very hard to explain stuffing to a non-American. They don't understand the combination of stale bread, broth, and seasonings.

So why the picture of a frittata instead of a turkey? It was our very last Thanksgiving leftover. We finished up the turkey earlier in the week with a dinner of turkey enchiladas, but I still had some stuffing. I admit it. At home, I would have just tossed the last bit of stuffing, without a second thought. But my mom had brought the stuffing mix all the way from California. I figured we needed to enjoy every last bite. I searched online for recipes for leftover stuffing and came up with the stuffing frittata pictured above. It was good. Even the kids enjoyed it.

This year we are thankful for so much. Every year, we always express our thanks for friends and family, but this year we are extra thankful that our family members are well can travel across the world to see us. I'm thankful for good friends who stay in touch despite the distance and the internet to make us feel connected to "home". And my biggest thanks goes to my kids who have far exceeded my expectations by embracing the move and a new culture.