Thanksgiving....

Thanksgiving is an American holiday. And, if you ever live outside of the US over Thanksgiving, you will understand what I mean when I say... it takes a lot of preparation to recreate the holiday somewhere else.

I started my Thanksgiving preparations a full 2 months ago.

It all started when I spotted a can of pumpkin pack on the bottom shelf in some remote grocery store. Now, you might think Libby's pumpkin pack is no big deal... and, at home, you might or might not pause to consider buying such a thing in September... But, if you live overseas, you will snatch that can up (actually, every single one of said cans) while looking around to make sure no one else is watching. You will then shove those cans in the bottom of your cart being extra careful to cover them so you are not stopped by any other expat wanting to ask where you found it (b/c then you'd have to admit to wiping out the current stock... and maybe even guilted into sharing).

Oh yes... you may not find a single thing on your list for dinner that night in the WHOLE store, but you walk around with this secret little smile because you KNOW you've got the beginnings of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving already IN YOUR POSSESSION!

And this happens over and over again all through the year, with whatever crazy-to-find item you know you will need for whatever upcoming holidays we have.

But back to THIS Thanksgiving.... I've been collecting items for weeks. Pumpkin pack, canned yams, lime green jello (this was especially hard), cool whip (in the end, my friend, Kristi, scored some from a LuLu's in Mushrif Mall and shared... sweet girl)... Yeah, it becomes this kind of hide and seek game. And you would have thought we were the victors of the Hunger Games each and every time we found an item! Seriously, it gets nuts! This year, we never did find stuffing mix.... which is why Kristi was busy making her own version from scratch late Thursday night.... but I digress....

We had to wait to celebrate until our Friday. First of all, we didn't have the day off (much less the week prior) to prepare. In fact, we had school and work on the Thursday that was the date of America's Thanksgiving. Plus, how can you have Thanksgiving without watching the Macy's Day Parade while cooking?... or have the big football game to watch during the food-induced coma before desserts? The UAE is 10 hours ahead of Texas.... 9 hours ahead of New York (we don't do daylight savings time here). The parade wouldn't start until 7 PM our time... and the Cowboys didn't have kickoff until 2 AM for us! Yikes!!! Even with a late... REALLY late... dinner, it wasn't really a good scenario.

Nope, better to wait until Friday... stay off Facebook.... and enjoy the festivities a calendar day behind.

So, that's what we did.

We made plans with the Shipman family who also live in our apartment complex AND are from the same town as us in Texas.... to do Thanksgiving together on Friday. We split up the menu, decided whose flat we'd use (ie, who actually had the ability to record and replay the all important football game), and started collecting (um, hoarding) food items.

I think we did pretty good.

The menu would have turkey and ham. Rolls, green bean casserole, carrots, mac-n-cheese, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and stuffing. For dessert, we planned to have pumpkin pies (3 of them), chocolate pie, and apple pie.

We found a turkey (only 12 pounds, but whatever) at Abela's grocery store. I had to go into the secret pork room for a ham, but they didn't have anything with a "bone in".  No Honey-Baked here... no spiral cut... nope. We ended up paying I-don't-want-to-tell-you-how-much for a deli ham. You know, the ones you find in the deli counter where they sell it by the pound (well... kilo, here) sliced for sandwiches?

Yeah, that's the one. They sell it by the kilo. I don't want to talk about it.....

Kristi and I actually had TWO meetings over lunch & tea just to discuss the plan of attack. Seriously, we spent over 2 weeks just looking for paper goods, pots & pans, basters, knives, and decoration supplies. Neither of us brought our traditional Thanksgiving recipes (what WERE we thinking?!) from home, so we both e-mailed friends and family for the "must haves"... the Grandma's famous rolls.... the aunt's lime green jello salad... it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them! We could wing it for some things, but others we had to rely on technology to help us. Thank goodness for e-mail, Facebook, and the internet!

I started cooking on Wednesday making pies. I had some problems...

I hate my oven. I mean H A T E !  It's not stable. I have an oven thermometer hanging inside so I can see what the real temperature is because you cannot trust the dial.  Heck, even when the oven warms up to some temperature.. not the one you set, usually... it still fluctuates up to 10 degrees either way during cooking! You just can't trust it. What I didn't realize is that it also has "hot spots"....

So here I am, on Wednesday night screaming at my oven door like some people scream at the referees on TV!  I put three beautiful pumpkin pies in the oven at the same time and started watching the thermometer to "babysit" and make adjustments as necessary. Here's the result.

Those two in the back are NOT chocolate. The damn pies burnt in my oven because of hot spots! Even after rotating them around and moving them ALL to the bottom rack, there was no saving two of the pies. They tasted fine, but looked terrible. Grrrrrr.... all that pumpkin pack gone to waste! Oh, the inhumanity of it all!!!!

I decided to just go to bed and try again tomorrow....

So finally, the day arrived. Thanksgiving Day!

Thanksgiving Day (Thursday) was set aside for making (more) pies and cold salads. Of course, Lindsey had to work the full day and the kids had school. I actually got called to work at the school as a 5th grade teacher, so my morning of pie making had to be moved to the the afternoon.

Plus, Lindsey's co-workers had invited us to a BBQ buffet at the Eastern Mangroves Hotel. It was rumored that turkey would be served (an oddity, for the UAE) as the buffet was being advertised as a "Thanksgiving BBQ". Hmmmmm, I'm intrigued.....

Since neither Lindsey, nor I, have ever been to one of the buffets so famous and popular by the people of the UAE, we were curious and decided to attend.  We weren't disappointed.

Apparently, the hotel puts out this spread every Thursday night around the pool overlooking the Abu Dhabi skyline. The "Thanksgiving" part was the token roasted turkey at one of the stations. But the regular spread includes everything from grilled meats to seafood (hot and cold) to fresh fruits to warm and cold sides to desserts.

Two ice sculptures held the largest selection of cold sea food: mussels, escargot, king crab, oysters on the half shell, shrimp... and more....

There was a sushi station, a soup station, a roasted meat station, fresh breads, salads, fruits....

The salmon came straight off the fire....

There was so much I didn't even sample... a whole Arabic *& Indian foods section... I can't even describe it. It's a four hour dinner event. You need all four hours if you want to sample even just a spoonful of each.... I didn't even try. But I can say that their turkey both looked and tasted fantastic. Well done, Eastern Mangroves... well done!!!

We came home late and I got up early to start my portion of the menu. The pies were all done, so I sent the kids over to deliver them to the Shipman's...

We borrowed the wagon & this is the result. I laugh that the pies got an armed escort... they WERE the coveted pumpkin, after all....!

... & let's not forget Doris' lime green jello salad! That stuff needs to be under lock & key! Yum!

We used that same wagon to transport all the hot dishes packed in towels (to keep them warm). It was a challenge to keep the kids (and the dads) out of the dishes while we completed the last of the preparations at Kristi's flat.

Finally, we said the prayer and the adults got to go first in line! The kids screamed "UNFAIR!" while waiting in line for their turn....

I think we did good.... It sure smelled good and tasted better! Kristi even found cranberry sauce in the can! Bless her little-southern heart!!!

After the food, the kids went down to the beach to play a little local football while we watched a very disappointing Cowboys game. We started the San Francisco game thinking it might cheer us up when the internet went out. The local internet provider, Etisalat, was down... again. Basically, it held long enough to watch the Cowboys and that was it! We were all thankful for that, at least.

In the end, we had a great Thanksgiving. The day was beautiful, the friendships warm, the food delicious, the dessert tasty, and the kids happy. It might have been a bit unconventional, but it's the message and sentiment behind the activity that really counts.

We are soooo thankful for all our many blessings.

So, now it's the day after, the day after... Lindsey is already back at work, the kids are doing homework, I'm running my dishwasher cycle again (3 hours each time) and washing a huge pile of towels and laundry (the spin cycle sounds like a jet engine ready for take off in there), I am once again reminded that the real blessings aren't found in wealth and position... or material belongings... not even in pumpkin pie or fudge....

The real blessings are those that we seat around us at our Thanksgiving tables.. both literally and figuratively...

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!!!!