With Friends for Thanksgiving

Being in France during the holidays means that once again we have to construct our own Thanksgiving plans. Thanksgiving is a tough holiday, because for many Americans it is the second most important holiday behind Christmas, yet it happens over a long weekend. This means that travel is not easy for many Americans, let alone those of us who live overseas. Needless to say, it’s not really possible for us to spend Thanksgiving with family, so we take that as an opportunity to invite old and new friends to take part in a Thanksgiving meal with us.

Like most years, we moved our Thanksgiving Day meal to Saturday. When Thanksgiving Day itself is not a holiday, we all have work and school both on the day itself as well as Friday. But on Saturday, a group of about 10 gathered at our house. Among our guests were friends that we have known almost since our arrival in France, seven years ago, as well as new friends we have made since our move to Rambouillet in 2017, and even a couple that we have just met recently. As is typical among our friends, many different languages were present, but for this occasion, English tended to be the most spoken, with some French here and there.

One of our Thanksgiving Day traditions is Charlie Brown. Miriam and I watched the first episode of This is America, Charlie Brown, which depicts the voyage of the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving meal. Then, we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which is not so much a historical tale as it is a Thanksgiving Day meal, as prepared and celebrated by Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown, and the Peanuts gang. We watched it with a few friends before the meal.

The meal was a huge success. My wife spent days preparing everything. The centerpiece was a big roast chicken, cooked in a lemon sauce that I have enjoyed many times before. Besides that, there was mashed potatoes, green beans, and baked sweet potatoes. There were even some Chinese dishes which emphasized the mixed nature of the event. A couple of other friends contributed garlic bread and cookies. In addition, there was chocolate cake and macarons. Basically, there was a lot of great food, and we really enjoyed ourselves at the table, as we must for any Thanksgiving meal.

Another element which I personally enjoyed, was having a lovely fire going the whole day and night. We had been saving up firewood for an occasion such as this, and on a day which started with a little snow on the ground, and had rain mixed with freezing rain, it was wonderful to have the shutters closed and created our own warm and cozy space by the fire.

We enjoyed the company of our friends immensely, a few of whom were Americans, a few others of whom had been to America several times, and all of whom enjoyed the meal. If I had to change one thing, I think I would move the meal to lunch time, which may be more traditional. That way, we don’t have to cut short the visit late at night, as we really enjoyed our guests’ company. In any case, it was a wonderful day for us, an opportunity to be thankful, nd a chance to share our home and table with friends.