Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Irish Thanksgiving- take two!

This Thanksgiving was my second one here in Ireland. I have to say, this year was definitely better than last year. Now that I have been through being so far away from home on this holiday before, its a lot easier.

I still had to work this year on Thanksgiving- thats the part that was the hardest for me. I would have loved to stay at home and watch the Macy's Day Parade and stay in my jammies (just like back home!) but unfortunately that isn't reality when living abroad. I was at work all day in meetings and I won't lie I did shed a tear or two when I talked to my parents back home. Eating cold sandwiches in a hotel bar just doesn't have the same appeal as a home cooked meal!

Thankfully my husbands family is really supportive and are always excited to have a Thanksgiving with me here in Ireland (even though they still don't get the reason behind the holiday despite my explanations....its just a cultural thing!)

This year was my first time hosting a Thanksgiving and cooking the turkey and the majority of the meal (Thank god my MIL is so awesome- she totally helped me with the meal and answered my frantic turkey phone calls during the morning haha!)

I thought the meal went really well- The cooking turned out really well despite me being under the weather (and by under the weather I mean hungover. I had a work function the night before and work functions here in Ireland means getting drunk with your work mates. de-gutting a turkey while hungover?? NOT FUN. I don't recommend this. There may have been a lot of whining and doing the "this is icky dance" while trying not to vomit down the turkey's neck.)

And of course- the biggest portion of any Irish gathering? Drinking. For me drinking on Thanksgiving ( or Christmas for that matter) is just not done- But my Irish relatives didn't even think twice about whether or not there was going to be a piss up- it goes hand in hand with any function! I was annoyed by this my first Thanksgiving- this time around I had a great time. (I would say I'm way more assimilated this year haha!)

Here are some of the pictures from my Irish Thanksgiving- round two.....


The meal- I was pretty proud of that turkey! Of course no thanksgiving would be complete without my mom's 7- layer salad! (and there is the obligatory cranberry jelly which NO ONE touched- two years running lol!)


The family getting in and settled around the table. We had the meal in my kitchen- It was pretty small and I realized that day that I only own 4 dishes (which is an issue for a meal for 10 people) and no serving spoons. DUH. Thank god for my MIL once again!
After the dinner the drinking commences........


And the drinking continues on....


And then the champagne comes out...
A little for you.....
A lot for me!


There was a lot of laughter and stories told


A lot of Pink Floyd played- with air drumming and guitar of course haha


A lot of strolls down memory lane- with accompanying maps to figure out who lived where in some estate back in the 60's...


And of course lots of family love! I had a fantastic Thanksgiving and feel very thankful to have married into a family as great as my husbands!

I hope everyone else had a fantastic thanksgiving and had lots of love and turkey!

2 comments:

  1. Awww I love the pictures of James' family! (You know, since Ive never seen any) I'm so glad you had a nice thanksgiving!! I hope we get to have one together again soon!! Love you!

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  2. This is totally what Thanksgiving's about...family fun time. Loved your pictures & your turkey came out great, nice job.

    I did a bit of drinking on Thanksgiving too. My dad & I stopped by the local winery & bought 3 bottles...they were all gone by the next day :)

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