Update #1 - Euro Thanksgiving

Even though Thanksgiving was a couple of months ago now, it ended up being so incredible that I felt it was necessary to give it the credit it deserves.

Plus, in sticking with my newfound desire to update this thing more often, I need to go back and talk a little about things that went down between my last post and now. And this is my feeble attempt at getting all the important things down.

So anyway, going into this Thanksgiving, I was a little skeptical because last year was so amazing. As my first time to ever be away from home for Thanksgiving (or any major holiday, for that matter), last year proved to be a pretty awesome substitute for the family Turkey Day.

(For those of you who don't remember or just weren't aware, last year I went to Valencia to have Thanksgiving with some Spanish friends who had studied abroad at OU and some Masters friends. It was enjoyable, to say the least.)

So yeah. Thanksgiving 2009 left some big shoes to fill.

However, I somehow lucked my way into being invited to 3 separate Thanksgiving dinners of the holiday weekend, so if one dinner couldn't do the job, then surely three of them could, right?

So here are some stories and background info of the 3 Thanksgivings of 2010:

Thanksgiving #1 - Thursday, November 25th, 2010

My good friend Lupe, who I met last year in the program, currently lives with two other American girls named Lizzie and Gaby. All of us naturally wanted to have a dinner on the actual day of Thanksgiving, and Lizzie wanted to show her British boyfriend a traditional American celebration, so we set to planning a small gathering.

Luckily, the girls volunteered to do all the cooking, so my only job was showing up and eating. Which I was more than happy to take care of.

Here is a group shot of me, Lupe, Amanda (another Masters friend), and Lizzie in the girls' kitchen. The great thing about this picture is that it makes it look like I might actually be doing something to help rather than just taking up space. But we all know that the food prep in the kitchen is half the fun, right?

As a smaller gathering, we didn't make the massive amounts of food normally associated with a Thanksgiving dinner, but we still had quite the spread. Turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, etc. Not too bad.

And a little close up shot of the turkey. (or maybe it was a chicken? I feel like my details are starting to get a little foggy.)

Thanksgiving #2 - Friday, November 26th, 2010

So then on to the next night. And despite still having some serious stomach pains from eating too much from the night before, I went in for round 2. As the Spaniards say, "hay que aprovechar la oportunidad!" ("you've got to seize the opportunity!")

So this time, my friends Jocey, Joy and Rachel (more good friends from last year) were having a gathering at their apartment in Lavapiés, a really hip part of Madrid that's great for going and getting tapas or for stuffing your face with obscene amounts of food at a friend's apartment.

Except there was a big difference between this Thanksgiving dinner and the one the night before. This time around the girls had invited like 30 people to their apartment with the instructions that everyone had to bring something, whether it be food, drinks, utensils, etc. So basically, imagine your typical amount of food at a Thanksgiving dinner and multiply it by about 100.

This one was also cool because it was kind of like eating Thanksgiving dinner at the United Nations. Seriously, a ton of different countries were represented that night and everyone was shocked to see that, yes, Americans actually do celebrate Thanksgiving by eating ourselves silly.

Here I am with the lovely hostesses: me, Joy, Lupe (from the night before), Rachel, and Jocey. These girls are awesome and I am definitely thankful for them, and not just because they cook for me.

Here is a shot of the turkey and ham that was cooked to perfection by Jocey. I really wish the pictures did it more justice because it was delicious and it looked like they had robbed a farm by how much food there was.

A shot of some of the homemade casseroles and things that the girls made/people brought. Once again, the picture doesn't really do it full justice because there were several tables lined with dishes like this.

And, as you can see, a party full of expats living in Madrid is never complete without a ton of wine. Which coincidentally was also my contribution to the dinner.

Don't judge.

Thanksgiving #3 - Saturday, November 27th, 2010

Last, but definitely not least, my good friend Robin (yet another of my friends from my Masters) has a Spanish boyfriend and, as this is her 3rd year here, a ton of Spanish friends. So she wanted to throw a big T-giving dinner for the Spaniards and invited several of her American friends as well. I was one of the lucky ones on the guest list.

This one was a little bigger than dinner #1 and smaller than dinner #2, but basically all you need to know about Robin is that she is seriously like Martha Stewart. The Thanksgiving dinner had every single traditional dish that belongs on the table: the turkey, the stuffing, the rolls, the green bean casserole, the broccoli casserole, the cranberry sauce, the pumpkin pie, etc.

And here's the thing: it was all homemade.

That's right. Every. Single. Thing. Made by Robin's hand. Even the cranberry sauce! Now I don't know about all of you out there, but my family's cranberry sauce always had the little rings around if from where we pulled it out of the can. So I was kind of blown away.

If that doesn't impress the hell out of you, I really don't know what will.

Here's a shot of the the master chef with her finished product.

And a shot of the table before we all dug in. Unfortunately no group pictures with this dinner, but you get the idea. And the night was filled with great conversation and good times.

As you can imagine, Sunday was basically a time to pop a lot of Tums and try and fight through the indigestion pains.

So overall it was quite a fantastic Thanksgiving, despite being so far away from home. Even though I didn't have my family close by, I had all of my Spain family right here with me. And despite the amazingness of all of that great food, all of my friends that I've made over here in Spain made it a Thanksgiving that I will truly never forget.