Let me preface that Thanksgiving at my house has 50+ people, centerpieces, chargers, sterling silver, goblets, the whole deal. We have appetizers, dinner, and then tons and tons of desserts. We dress nicely and its a very beautiful event. It's what happens when your mother is a party planner and florist. Not many people have serving dishes for hundreds, as well as table cloths, chair covers, etc. So it's a big beautiful deal.
That being said we knew we had to make it work regardless.
First, we would need to prep.
They don't sell turkeys here in the store but by word of mouth from other Americans we heard you could pre-order one, and so Rosie did.
We headed to the largest grocery store, in the mall, in hopes of finding yams and cranberries. Even though the yams were very expensive we had success! We also found a bag of frozen cranberries, double success. The other parts were guesses and included staring at packaging hoping that what we put in the cart was what we wanted. It's a bit hard when everything is in a language you can't read. A lot of litas later we were back home.
That night Rosie tried to make a pie. I use the word tried because, well, it was interesting. We had exactly one can of pumpkin that someone shipped Paige from America. Yay! So glad we had that can of pumpkin! That pumpkin was gold to us and could not be messed up. When Rosie arrived she had forgotten all the ingredients, including the pumpkin pie spice she had shipped to her. So to the Maxima she ran. The had the pie crust rolled out and ingredients tossed around the kitchen but she also was missing evaporated milk. Long story short the poor girl tried to make her own evaporated milk, while mixing her own pumpkin pie spice, all with being late for school. The milk burned, the can opener doesn't work, the pie crust is in a weird dish we found, and she has to leave. So all the ingredients go into the fridge for me to tackle later. Paige ended up finding evaporated milk at the store with a weird name and I was able to finish the pie. Which I might add was delicious! Good job Rosie, very impressive! Very impressive! Rosie rocks.
Wednesday morning the food prep began. I got up early and roasted garlic for the potatoes, made the cranberry sauce, and started to prep vegetables. Around 9:30 Paige woke up to tackle the turkey. Well, we soon discovered that unlike in America where there is a bag of turkey parts inside the turkey, this turkey had all its parts... still attached.
What to do.
Big knife.
Wake up Mikele.
Paige and Mikele then began to dissect the turkey as I recorded and we all yelled and laughed and about vomited. Some parts of a turkey I never want to see again. It was absolutely hilarious to say the least and made for some lasting memories. Turkey goes in the oven and more prep.
Brown sugar carrots, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and Amsterdam cheese, sweet potatoes from Heaven- seriously Paige makes the richest, sweetest, sweet potatoes ever, mormon wine, lol, and on and on. Rachel arrives with stuffing (get her recipe, it was the best stuffing ever!) and Rosie arrives with rolls and another pie. BY the way it was the first stuffing I have ever had that did not come out of a box.
(If my mom saw this plate she would not be happy because it is not color balanced. I would have to agree but come on now, it's Lithuania!)
Got dressed in school clothing- skirt and sweater, as is tradition in our family to look nice for Thanksgiving. The other girls didn't quite understand but I like that tradition. I also like eating off sterling silver and drinking from crystal goblets. But let's not ask for too much here.
Mikele and Paige are in bed and Hannah and I decide to set up and decorate to the best of our ability. We tried to move the table into Mikele's room but we got all the way to her door and realized it wasn't going to fit so we had to take it all the way back to my room lol and then put by bed up, clean, and make the room large enough for all of us. Which we did! We used some of our kids creations from school which added a little fun to our mismatched table. But hey, we are in Lithuania, we made it work.
Rosie and I decided we needed to make a third pie for Paige. No concern that we had no oven, little time, and 8 things cooking. So off to the store Rosie went again and a lemon pie it was. It actually turned out great even though I swear it was going to fail. It was very tart though but lemons are tart so it works.
At 1:30 we sat around our table together and ate. By 1:37 we were done and fuller than full. The stuffing and sweet potatoes were the highlight of my day. They reminded me of my dad. We both have a sweet tooth. My mom would have hated them but he would have loved them so much. Our food really was great and I am impressed we were able to pull it together, everything was so delicious. Once we were done, I started to tackle clean up while the girls watched Frozen. I wish that we could have sat around the table more than a few minutes and actually tried to enjoy each others company but unfortunately that didn't happen.
That night round two happen and all the leftovers were gone. Pie night. Yum. Ha! Whip cream. Ever made whipped cream without a blender? It sucks. It hurts. It takes forever. It makes a mess. Rosie was covered in whipped cream and so was our patio. Delicious though and totally necessary. Pumpkin pie without whipped cream is not a pie at all.
Oh! And it snowed, all day. That was a first.
The hardest part was having to go to work. We just wanted to cuddle up and watch a movie or play games but we had to go out in the snow and work. I did video call my family for the first time since being here and talked to my parents for awhile, not sure if that made it better or worse.
I am not going to lie, yesterday was hard. Probably why this post isn't too happy. The only thing I wanted to do was be at home with my family, in CA, outside in the warm weather, feeding leftovers to my dogs, listening to my family sing and play the guitars, eating multiple times, and being around those I love and care about. Sometimes though we have to make sacrifices. At least I will be home for Christmas.
3 weeks.
3 weeks.
I think I can, I think I can...
Until then in the light of Thanksgiving here is what I am thankful for. Really, I am thankful...
Sarah Wolf. Enough said. She is my other half
My dogs. The literal loves of my life.
My family.
My best friends! Tawnie and Michelle and their cute babies and soon to be babies. And Eric and our love for food.
California winters
My car
Travel
The cute kids in my classes
Karina and her hugs and enthusiastic greetings every time she sees me
The pre learners and their expressions
Social media and the connections it gives me to America
My Chaparral teachers who inspire me
Pictures
Pillow top king beds
down pillows
hot water
dryers
matching dishes
books
America
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