Tag: Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

November 28, 2014 /

Thanksgiving is not an internationally celebrated holiday.  As such, on Thursday the girls had school and Jeff had work.  Interestingly, Jeff asked students if they knew what Thanksgiving was.  A few did but mostly they wanted to know if he went shopping for Black Friday.  During the day I picked up some last minute supplies up for our planned Friday Thanksgiving celebration — although in reality the stores were open as normal if we did need something.  We watched a live streaming of the Macy’s Day parade when the kids came home from school.  And while we had our celebration planned for the next day, it was really hard not to feel a sadness on not spending the holiday with family.  On not knowing how the food we had planned for tomorrow would turn out.  On not being part of a larger celebration.  It was hard evening.  I hadn’t anticipated that.  My bottle of 1.66 wine didn’t really make it any easier either.  But….

We celebrated Thanksgiving today.  (I’m not really sure why the schools in Buitrago were closed.  It wasn’t a national holiday).  And it was nice.  It was good.  Jeff and I spent most of the day cooking and listening to Christmas music.  The food turned out great.  Everything was homemade.  Actually, now that I think about it I don’t even own a can opener.  We had scalloped potatoes with ham, baked beans, green beans, squash, homemade mac & cheese and an apple pie.  We watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  We all shared the things we are thankful for.  It was really nice.  Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

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The Holiday Season

November 25, 2014 /

The holiday season is quickly approaching. The calendar says Thanksgiving is this week. As in two days. But it’s not Thanksgiving here. Nor are the kids studying it for English class. And there are no black Friday ads. Actually, it was the black Friday ads filling my facebook posts that first alertedly me to the approaching holiday. The deals, the discussion of holiday creep and the morality of retail stores open on Thanksgiving. I enjoy scouring the ads. Although, I’ve rarely ventured out at the crack of dawn (once for diapers at Babies R US, once for a Zune, neither of which I was early enough for).  Before we had kids, we used to go to Target and fill our cart with all the things on sale we’d like to buy.  In the end we’d sigh and go home with a couple of DVDs.  There are no turkeys in the stores (at least not in our town) and certainly no promotions of getting a free turkey when you spend $150.  But, there are whole, skinned rabbits in the store.  Turkey substitute?

We decided on a modified Thanksgiving menu.  Baked beans, squash, green been casserole (complete with dried onions), scalloped potatoes with ham and an apple pie.  I gathered YouTube videos on the history of Thanksgiving for the girls and we made our Thankful Turkey craft.  Both the YouTube video and craft, Jeff will be using in one of his classes tomorrow as well — English Language Learning.  And you know what, it did put me in the holiday mood.  Maybe, tomorrow I’ll put a bunch of stuff I don’t need and won’t actually buy in my Kohls.com shopping cart in honor of Black Friday (i.e. Black week??)

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Scarlett:s Thanksgiving Turkey. She is thankful for Days off of school [to spend with her family], life, food, the world, her family and love.

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Lavender’s Turkey. She is thankful Scarlett and October, Mommy, Grandma’s, Castles, food and family movies.

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October’s Turkey. She is thankful for life, family, sisters, peace, grandma and food.

Christmas

November 20, 2014 /

It’s getting about that time.  I keep seeing the facebook posts for black Friday ad’s and the calendar says it’s Thanksgiving next week.  Which is not a holiday celebrated here in Spain.  We won’t be having a Turkey.  But we have already watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on YouTube.  Jeff and the kids have school on Thursday although they have Friday off for some other holiday.  I think our menu will be green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes with ham and maybe squash.  We talked about a roast but maybe we’ll save that for Christmas.  Or maybe we need to look up some more traditional Spanish meals.

We’ve talked to the kids about Christmas, in particularly about Christmas presents.  We told them, of course, Santa will bring a present but that we will not be buying toys and stuff.  And we should not expect packages from grandma’s either.  We needed to think of things such as experiences, special treats, gift card downloads for eBooks, and things we can do together as a family.  October and Scarlett really seemed to embrace the idea.  Until, they found a toys r us catalog in the coffee shop yesterday and fights ensued over who could circle which toys and how many times one toy could be circled.  Before this catalog, October has already made her Christmas list.  It’s very sweet.

October’s Christmas List:

 – It’s ok if this one is very late when we are back in amica.  a pet that is not a fish.
– a fary that flys
– a gift card to toys r us or target
– homemade stuffy
– a movie with violet
– cookies with hot choclate
– dady to help me make critals [crystals]
– a gient story
– a white critmas
– horse back riding
– a cristmas shirt
– a pair of red and green pants and maching mittens
– a friend that speeks inglish
– s’mint color blue or red
– kinder
– a run with mommy

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