London Thanksgiving

When you have to work on Thanksgiving in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, it doesn't feel like much like Thanksgiving. You have to find other ways to celebrate such as an after-work Thanksgiving dinner or a weekend expat Friendsgiving; we did both. Shane and I are thankful for our family and friends who know people living in London who were kind enough to welcome us into their homes and help us celebrate the holiday.

On Thursday night, with the help of Shane's Aunt Geri, we were invited to Lisa Honeyman's Thanksgiving dinner. Lisa's family hosts a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner every year and they do Thanksgiving right. They had everything; turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pecan pie and apple pie. The winning dish was the turkey, and I don't like turkey, so that is saying something. They ordered the turkey from their local butcher. I don't know what the butcher does to his turkey but Shane and I both agreed, it was the best turkey that we have ever tasted. Lisa and her family were super welcoming and their friends were equally fantastic. Lisa and her husband, Baer, are the best hosts. First, their house is amazing. It's huge (American-sized), with a giant garden - very rare! Shane and I were in awe. Second, our drink glasses were never empty - from cocktails when we arrived, to carafes of wine at dinner, to dessert wine with pie...they had everything and we quickly learned how much the Brits drink at dinner parties. Lastly, they provided a take-away box packed with the delicious turkey, for Martha. We had a great time.

On Saturday night, with the help of our friends - Erika & Andrew, we were invited to Mary & Brett's Friendsgiving. Mary & Brett are American expats who both work at Big 4 accounting firms and have been living in London for the past 2 years.  They hosted 14 people which provided us with a wonderful opportunity to meet and make some friends! Mary is a phenomenal cook and did all of the cooking herself! When Mary & Brett first moved to London, Mary didn't have a job and started working at the local butcher shop. She still works at the butcher shop on some weekends and the turkey came from her shop. Again, the turkey, it was delicious. We had seconds. I don't know what they do to turkey's in the U.K. but whatever it is, I don't hate it. The winning dish, in our opinion, was the gnocchi. Mary hand-made it and we couldn't get enough. Mary & Brett sent all of their guests home with take-away - so nice! Shane ate his for breakfast on Sunday...probably because the wine/manhattans/pub beers wasn't the best combination.

Despite not being with our families, we had such a great time at both of our Thanksgiving celebrations which allowed us not to miss home as much.