Thanksgiving.

Well well, this was a Thanksgiving to remember. 

Instead of family there were flatmates;

instead of turkey there was pizza;

instead of pumpkin and pecan pies there were brownies and ice cream and cheap cheesecake.

Instead of wine there was - just kidding, there was still wine.

But surprisingly I didn't find myself weepy-eyed about missing our traditional Thanksgiving. My fellow American in the flat (Jess) and I had been talking up the holiday for weeks and our roommates were pretty excited about experiencing their very first Thanksgiving with us.

I headed home after work giddy about our mini-feast. There were seven of us celebrating: Spanish Veronica, Chilean Loly, Californian Jess, and Canadian Jen from the flat, plus Polish Dom and a Floridian friend of Jess's named Marley. And get this – we found a pizza place offering a pie topped with turkey and cranberry. How perfect. 

Now that I've given you a jolly enough description that you'll know I wasn't too upset on this great American holiday, I'll let you in on a few little things that I did miss...

The Maxwells. This is the one standing obligation for my father’s side of the family to get together every year. Whether it's at Canebrake or in Tulsa or Little Rock or Hot Springs, I always look forward to seeing my aunts, uncles, cousins… random foreign exchange students…  I missed our rowdy gift exchange and game of Pass-the-Trash. Ahh, there’s nothing quite like gambling with the family.

Black Friday. Allie and I, without fail, every year, wake up around 6 am and go shopping together. It’s never worth the crowds, long lines, prices, and tantrums but we still do it annually as an undying sisterly tradition.

The Football. Some of my fondest Thanksgiving memories are of everyone laid out liked beached whales all over the house, bursting from turkey and sweet potatoes, just barely managing to keep one eye open on the football. And this isn’t just any old football game. If you know anything about the Maxwells, you know that both sides of my family hail from Louisiana. Somehow the Hogs have managed to turn my father, and I’m a Razorback fan as well, but that leaves the two of us struggling against up to 30 kindred LSU fans in The Battle of the Boot.

Fall Foliage. Mmmm the weather in the south is always so crisp around Thanksgiving. And those leaves.

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows. This is so my favorite.

Thanksgiving Leftovers. Good cold or warmed up.

But here is one redeeming aspect about being in London for an exclusively American holiday: It was my own to share.  The rest of the world already knows so much about American culture through TV, popular music, and movies, which can leave me feeling that I don’t have very much to share about “life back home” that my new friends don’t already know.  But for once, Thanksgiving is something that I felt was my own to share. Of course they've seen the Thanksgiving episodes of  Friends in Chile and Poland and everywhere else, but Jess and Marley and I had authentic stories to tell about family traditions and favorite dishes, and they were unique from each of our experiences in California, Arkansas, and Florida. So even though the pizza was tasty and I devoured a month's worth of brownie and ice cream, I’d say that was the sweet potato casserole of my English Thanksgiving.