Our Thanksgiving dinner is a little different

This was our Thanksgiving dinner

The thing about spending Thanksgiving out of the United States is that it isn't Thanksgiving anywhere else.

So since you know you're not going to celebrate the typical way, you kind of just keep your head down and convince yourself to treat it like any other day, instead of spending the whole day wishing that you were in your parent's kitchen, sneaking bites of your mom's world-famous pumpkin cheesecake.

But the catch is that Thanksgiving is a rather famous American specialty, an infamous little quirk, and everyone has been exposed to it through movies and TV, and so the very year that you don't want to talk about it and you want to try to ignore the whole thing, everybody and their mother wants you to give them a five-minute monologue on it.

"How exactly do you cook the turkey? Roasted? Grilled? Fried?"

"Tell me about pumpkin pie. What's in it? Is it as disgusting as it sounds?"

(*side note here*: when I mentioned pumpkin pie to my third-graders, they immediately started making revolted faces and fake retching in the aisles.  One kid said "Necesito vomitar" which, I think, doesn't need translation.  They eat pumpkin here occasionally, but only in savory items, and the idea of sweet pumpkin nearly pushed them over the edge. Sad.)

Thanksgiving is, in fact, my very favorite holiday of the year, despite my attempts to ignore this one.

So here's to you, America. Happy Thanksgiving. Believe me when I say that I'm thinking about you.

(oh, and don't feel too sad for me - my friend Claire came through like a champ and is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner Saturday night for us wayward Americans - so looks like I will get to be jealous of your turkey and eat mine too!)