Growing up in America is a unique journey for everyone. Throughout my whole life all I knew was being American, but as I get older I realize my "American" is much different from other people's perspectives. My unique perspective is partially due to having a family who spent a good portion of their lives in England. My mother spend the first thirteen years of her life as the youngest of five children in a prominent British family. Long story short her family ended up migrating to the United States.
Years later I came into the picture. While growing up I was oblivious to the differences of how my family celebrated certain holidays. Many of my Thanksgivings were spent at Black Eye Peas, a restaurant open on Thanksgiving. Our "family tradition" was to get together and go out to eat every year on Thanksgiving. Now that I am older I realize much of this "tradition" comes from the fact that my family does not have a strong relationship or history of celebrating Thanksgiving.
This year was my first experience hosting a traditional Thanksgiving. My husband's birthday is November 22 which means Thanksgiving is one of his favorite holidays. His upbringing was very different from mine, and his Thanksgiving meals consisted of so much food I swear there were some side dishes I have never even heard of. For 2011 I decided to take on my first real attempt at a from scratch American Thanksgiving.
My reaction: OH MY GOODNESS!!
Menu: From scratch homestyle mashed potatoes, from scratch egg noodles, from scratch pumpkin roll, mostly from scratch pumpkin pie (the pastry was frozen :) ) Turkey, stuffing (from a box because it is my favorite!) Cranberry sauce out of a can, and gravy from a packet because the turkey juices were used with the egg noodles.
Never before have I put so much work into so little pay out. I literally spent astronomically more time preparing and cleans than relishing the fruits of my labor. My experience with Thanksgiving produced more dirty dishes than any other meal I have ever prepared!
I have a new found appreciation for the invites I have received to go to friend's family's Thanksgiving celebrations.
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