Thanksgiving 2009 (WITH PATRICIO)

And so we begin where we left off...

Thanksgiving '09

Its was my third Thanksgiving away from home, and it never gets any easier. But as usual I was surrounded by a group of amazing people who are my non-technical family in Argentina. This year it was a good mix of people from the US, England and Argentina, and for the first time for a Thanksgiving abroad we had a Turkey!!!
But let's start at the very beginning. When we left for Montevideo the oven had broken, and it remained so when we got home. Our trusty Uruguayan handy man has disappeared so things were looking bleak. We got the go ahead to use rent money to buy a new oven, and it arrived Wednesday. The repair man came to install it on Thursday morning, and the Turkey was ordered!!! When I left the house Thursday morning, Thanksgiving was on. To my despair, I received a text from Fani informing me that the oven would light but it wouldn't stay lit (we work in gas over here) and that you could hold down the button to release the gas and it would stay lit but only at 500 degrees Fahrenheit and only while you pushed it in.
This news was alarming, but I was at work and their was nothing I could do. I trusted Fani and Josh would figure something out, but...we had no idea what would happen.
When I arrived home I was eager to find out what they had managed. Fani told me: we are going to have a Turkey!!! Yay!!! I responded. How can this be??? Well, she said, its in an oven, just not ours. Fani and Josh had headed to the butcher to see what could be done. They explained the situation asked if he could cut it up so they could grill it. He said that the Turkey wouldn't be gross if we did that, so Josh and Fani did the next obvious thing and asked to trade the Turkey for some chicken. Grilled chicken might be nontraditional for Turkey day, but at this point they weren't being picky. The Butcher then informed them they there was no way they were getting any chicken. His car had broken down on the way to get the Turkey and so they were going to eat that Turkey. They were going to eat it and they were going to like it! Luckily he was willing to go all the way and offered to let us use his oven!!!!!! I went over to check things out, and sure enough, there was our Turkey in his oven surrounded by carrots and onions. It was beautiful.

Washing out the pan in the Butcher's kitchen

El Pavito

Josh and Uli in the Butcher's

The Butcher, Josh, Uli, y el Pavo

You know, just walking around San Telmo with some Pavo

Bringing home the Turkey

The table FULL of food for Thanksgiving.

And so we began a feast that met my highest expectations. There were plenty of potatoes and vegetables, Patrick had brought and made corn bread, and Coy had found what she though were cranberries but what were actually blueberries which we promplty turned into blueberry sauce that complimented the cornbread like coke compliments Fernet. Fani made some non-Kosher stuffing (which kicks Kosher stuffing's but cause there is sausage in it), gravy was made from the pavo juices and there were even chocolate covered strawberries and Argentine dulce de leche cake madness for dessert. As we all gathered in the Living with our plates brimming with food, Fani made everyone take a turn to say what they were thankful for.
I had a lot to be thankful for. To start with, I was able to say what I was thankful for in Spanish!! I remembered a year ago when I was just starting to figure out how to get by, the names of different produce items, and maybe a little past tense. We had Thanksgiving with a group of completely different people, and as Josh said we are so lucky to have been able to make so many amazing friends. So many people have left, but we've made so many friends that not one person from last year's T-day was present and the room was full. And of course this year we had four Argentines present who are such good friends. Well, enough of that, I was also thankful to have a "plate" full of delisiousness.

Plate of deliciousness

Fani explains Turkey day to an Argy named Alé

Happily together for the best Holiday ever

But most of all I was thankful that one of my best friends could come visit me before I left, and that I could share all of this with him. Thanks for being there Patty!! Everyone misses you already!!!