Thanksgiving
By Nancy Todd
Many friends have written to ask how Regina and I are spending Thanksgiving. As always, the Scoopettes are living life in style and that includes Thanksgiving.
Arthur making Thanksgiving Cake
First, forget the fourth Thursday. As dinners in Spain go on for hours, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Saturday night with dinner beginning at 9.30, an early start time for Spain. We know people won’t arrive till 10 or 10.30. Dinner will probably begin at 11.
Ten dear friends will circle the table. Gonzolo from Argentina, Robert from the cheese state, Dana-California, Arthur-Poland, Pedro-Madrid, and the rest from Barcelona. Turkey, or pavo, is difficult to find and I have ordered one to pick up on Saturday morning from the poultry saleswoman in the red ruffly apron from Mercat de Concepcion. This is the colorful, Victorian market building with many food vendors near my apartment. I will have to ask them to remove the head and feet, muchas gracias. If I do not ask, back home I will be staring at eyeballs, beaks, and wattles wondering what the heck to do with them.
Regina and I have been successful in training people in the ‘covered dish’ technique for dinner parties. Most people hadn’t heard of it. Arthur asked when we told him about it, “What is dis ting? Bring a dish with a cover?” Dana is bringing her corn bread stuffing from her Mother’s famous New Orleans receipe. Jose Maria and Maria a home made liquor. Robert will carry his Mother’s Sweet Potato Delight on the back of his bike. Many will contibute to one of Spain’s basic food groups: wine. I was able to find a tiny jar of cranberry sauce, which cost a week’s salary. This was purchased from a gourmet market in a big department store.
Our Spanish friends have asked the origin of Thanksgiving. Repeating that pilgrim and indian story is a dubious legend so Regina and I emphasize the giving of thanks. We will miss our family and friends and will picture them sitting at the table with us. Not being with family and friends is the difficult part of being so far away. We give thanks for our adventure of living in Barcelona and for the turkey minus the head. We will not miss the football games.
Write to us your Thanksgiving experiences either in the U.S. or some bizarre place. Sometimes I forget that the U.S. is considered bizarre by many.
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PHOTO CREDIT: ANTONELLOMUSINA
2 Comments
Have a wonderful feast!! We celebrated on Thursday, of course, and it was a wonderful time. As part of an old tradition, we played the “Real Game of Life”. Ask Regina…it is interesting and a good way to get to know each other and see how we do in adversity! The one with the most smiley faces wins. Alas, at the end war was declared and the game ended with nukes…but by that time we were all tired of playing anyway!
hi kirsten, a belated t.g. to you! thanks for being such a faithful Scoop reader! nancy