Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has arrived with no turkeys in sight. At least not in Greece. It seems you can't usually get turkeys until closer to Christmas here. Ah well. When we go grocery shopping tomorrow I'll get us as fat a chicken as I can so we can break the pre-Christmas Greek Orthdox fast with a good simulacrum of a Thanksgiving dinner.

There are a lot of things I am grateful for this year, including our lovely new home. But the list includes a fabulous husband and two loving families (although both are far away from us today, with my in-laws on a Caribbean cruise).

I sure do miss my mom's Thanksgiving dinner though - no matter how hard I try, I don't think I'll ever do it as well as she does. I'm hoping I can convince them to come to Greece next Thanksgiving so she can do all the work and my in-laws can taste what a real Thanksgiving dinner tastes like.

I wish everyone feasts of plenty, including food, love, health and happiness.

6 comments:

Laurie Constantino said...

Happy Thanksgiving Mel!
For next year when your mom comes to cook for you -- it is possible to get a turkey, if you know any farmers that is. One year, i knew i'd be desparate for a turkey, so we made arrangements in the spring for him to raise us one, and he did. Of course, then I did a full blown Thanksgiving dinner, which was sort of a dud because people thought the food was so wierd. Also, no one in my husband's family understood the concept of passing the serving dishes aroung the table, so I ended up having to bring each dish around to everyone. The leftovers were grand! As mine are right now -- I was thinking about getting a bungie cord to keep the refrigerator door shut, but finally I found something I could throw away and then everything fit.
Hoping all is well with you.

Nicole said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

Thanksgiving is a glorified American tradition that celebrates an event in history that never really happened. It's more about the food and the symbolism of that celebration that keeps people so nostalgic.
Being Greek myself - I can understand why the Greeks living in Greece don't care much for a Thanksgiving meal...cranberry sauce with turkey = yuck!! I would much rather eat Greek kolokithopita over pumpkin pie any day.
I'm a seafood person myself so all red meat pales in comparison to seafood and fish. Like my mother always says: "What do the North Americans know about good food? ;)

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving, and what's up with this site. Every time I visit, it's like a spider's web and my computer freezes for about 30 seconds while all these massive graffics load. Then it finally let's me leave to another site. (not sure if others have told you that before).

Also, to Joanne, apparently you have never tasted properly prepared American Thanksgiving fare. That's the key. Just like poorly prepared greek food--it sucks too.

Anonymous said...

Scorpion: I'm Greek/Canadian and we also celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada but I have never been impressed with roast turkey,glazed ham,stuffing,pumpkin pie, etc, etc...plus, I don't eat meat so the Thanksgiving meal is not a big deal for me.

My mom's a great cook and so I have rarely had poorly prepared Greek food...sorry to be so blunt :) I didn't mean to offend anyone.

Laurie Constantino said...

Joanne, I too prefer Kolokythopita to Pumpkin Pie, which I have never liked. And this year, tired of the same old Thanksgiving dinner, we had an entirely different kind of meal.

Many North Americans do, however, know a tremendous amount about good food, and there are Greeks who don't have a clue about the subject. I have eaten wonderful, magical meals throughout North America. And on occasion I've had terrible food in Greece.

No matter the subject, generalizations about all people of, for example, a certain nationality, are bound to be inaccurate.

Thanksgiving, as I've celebrated it my entire life, has little to do with whether a historical event did or did not occur. Rather, it is a day on which we give thanks for the blessings we have enjoyed throughout the year. It's hard to see how that is a bad thing.