Truthahn Tag!

Dennis's American coworkers may have had the day off, but, sadly, the Swiss office couldn't care less about America's Thanksgiving.  And, of course, the kids had school today as well. That all made for an odd Thanksgiving.

I think this will be the eleventh Thanksgiving dinner I've cooked, but all of them in recent memory have been prepared with little kids and assorted family members popping in and out of the kitchen. Today it was just Joey and me vs. The Turkey.

But I got my revenge on the bird that has caused me so much recent embarrassment. Pute or Truthahn or Dinde or whatever you want to call it: she went into the convection oven for just shy of three hours and came out delicious. This is certainly the smallest turkey I've ever cooked, and the freshest, and I guess it's true, what all the foodies say: those things seem to make a difference.

Although we were far from the families that we miss, particularly as we commence with the holidays, we got to share our dinner with some dear friends.

Susannah and Daniel and their kids joined us: Susannah was determined to bring pumpkin pie to the table, but sadly discovered that it is just short of impossible to find a pumpkin in Zürich after Halloween.  Of course, everything is available if you pay for it: I heard rumors of a $12 can of Libby's pie filling, for sale in the American food section of the Orel Füssli English Bookshop. But Susannah cleverly made her fantastic bite-sized pies out of butternut squash, to go with her Swiss-style apple tart and sweet potatoes. And she rescued my too-salty gravy with an emergency phone call to the states, where her aunt confirmed that we needed to throw a potato into the sauce pot.

Torrey and Claire also graced us with their fun company, and they saved us from ourselves, providing the only green thing on our table, an enormous salad, as well as some other yummy nibblies. Otherwise we observed Thanksgiving as the starch-fest that is meant to be, with two kinds of potatoes and stuffing and corn pudding.

The kiddie table, er, floor

And then, to my right in the photo above, is Chan, the woman who taught Susannah's and my Integrationskurs this year.  When she arrived, she confessed that it was a little odd visiting Wasserschöpfi: her husband passed away last year, and it turns out that he grew up on our little street, and she visited his family house often while they were married. So I'm sure the evening was bittersweet for her, but I sure am glad she joined us: it was a treat to spend one last day with her before we move away.

I'm afraid that it scarcely registered with my kids that today was a holiday.  I mentioned, several times, that Thanksgiving was coming up, but, as I've noted, it's not my kids' favorite, and they're a little too distracted, looking beyond to Christmas. Eyes on the prize. Our table scarcely fit our seven adult guests, so the kids did get the enormous treat of eating their dinner in front of some new Smurfs cartoons, and Alex and Joey, at least, enjoyed the food, with Alex loading his plate up with turkey breast three times.

But, since it was a school night, and since Chan had an hour's train commute home, we had to end the evening earlier than I would have liked.  But I'm thankful that we got to spend a bit of our holiday with dear friends.