Thanksgiving
A bunch of us gathered together for a classic enormous feast on Thanksgiving. Just three of us were American, and several were Swedes who had experienced the holiday in California last year during their study abroad.
We had an amazing turkey.
Homemade cranberry sauce.
Mashed potatoes.
Gravy from scratch.
Fresh baked pies.
And so much more.
We even did a typical Thanksgiving craft, those classic handmade turkeys, and wrote on them things we were thankful for.
Several of my Swedish friends asked me at varying times if the holiday had felt authentic enough... "was the gravy just right? is the turkey supposed to be done this way? do you usually sit around a big table like this? did it feel too Swedish?" They were so kindly and genuinely concerned that it would feel traditional enough.
I'd told them before that I thought that Thanksgiving was probably the most "across-the-board traditional" holiday there was in the States, as far as what people tend to eat and how the day is spent, since for all other holidays there are so many different ways people do it. So as we sat around the table talking and laughing for hours, and people helped themselves to 3rd servings of the dishes that we'd all contributed to making, friends caught up with each other since they'd been visiting town from far away, and everyone went home completely stuffed and sleepily content... I honestly didn't think that Thanksgiving could get more authentic than that.
We had an amazing turkey.
Homemade cranberry sauce.
Mashed potatoes.
Gravy from scratch.
Fresh baked pies.
And so much more.
We even did a typical Thanksgiving craft, those classic handmade turkeys, and wrote on them things we were thankful for.
Several of my Swedish friends asked me at varying times if the holiday had felt authentic enough... "was the gravy just right? is the turkey supposed to be done this way? do you usually sit around a big table like this? did it feel too Swedish?" They were so kindly and genuinely concerned that it would feel traditional enough.
I'd told them before that I thought that Thanksgiving was probably the most "across-the-board traditional" holiday there was in the States, as far as what people tend to eat and how the day is spent, since for all other holidays there are so many different ways people do it. So as we sat around the table talking and laughing for hours, and people helped themselves to 3rd servings of the dishes that we'd all contributed to making, friends caught up with each other since they'd been visiting town from far away, and everyone went home completely stuffed and sleepily content... I honestly didn't think that Thanksgiving could get more authentic than that.
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