Thanksgiving Irish Style

We decided to do a Thanksgiving turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day. I just could not do it the day after, it would not feel like Thanksgiving. But really it does not even feel like fall in Ireland except for the leaves changing color and falling. There were not that many houses at all decorated for Halloween, no fall flowers on doorsteps, no fall decorations in the store. Nothing! 

It was hard finding a turkey in the store. I think they have them all hidden in a freezer for Christmas. We drove to multiple supermarkets and butchers and we found a little 5 pound turkey. It was small but hey it was a turkey. Next we had to find cranberry sauce. They don't sell cranberries so I could not make my own sauce. I tried a few supermarkets and they had nothing. Then I went to M&S in town and they had a jar in their Christmas food aisle. Yea!  Joe brought two cans of pumpkin to France for us to bring back. They don't sell that either here and we HAD to have our pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. We did not have to worry about potatoes…they have plenty of those in Ireland. But for Thanksgiving I bought the nice potatoes…Rooster Potatoes! They don't have Idaho potatoes in Ireland. Then I just had to pick up carrots, corn, green beans, and bread to make Grandma C's stuffing (per T's request). 

As we were approaching Thanksgiving Day I informed the children that they could not take the Thursday and Friday off of school. They had to pick one day - either Thursday or Friday. K and T wanted to invite people over for Thanksgiving since they are used to have a big family Thanksgiving at home. I told them we could not invite anyone with children because it's a school night. We invited 2 of my aunts and one of my cousins. We would now have 8 total for dinner. 

K wanted to put up Thanksgiving decorations but I had to inform her that we did not have any and they do not sell Fall decorations in the stores. I told her we could make a centerpiece for the table by collecting colorful leaves and putting them in books to make them flat. K was all over that job! Sometimes on her walk from school to the house she would pick up a few leaves and bring them home. I found a orange candle at the store so we could use that too. This is our result by using our creativity. Its not perfect but it was perfect for the center of the table. 

Thanksgiving table centerpiece

T decided to stay home from school Friday instead of Thanksgiving Day. Thursday is the day at school where they go to the swimming pool for lessons and he really enjoys it. He did not want to miss it. T gets home from school at 2.45 so I said we could eat at 3.30. K decided to stay home on Thanksgiving and wanted to go to school on Friday because they were doing a bake sale. They were raising money for the Philippines and had to bake lots of goodies. L just wants to go to school EVERY SINGLE DAY…even Saturday and Sunday! 

The night before I made two of my vegetable dishes and the pumpkin pie. We had so many issues with the pie. Don't forget I have to convert my recipe to the metric system and figure out how to cook it in celsius. I use a vanilla instant pudding in my pie and they don't sell anything like that here. So we just left out that ingredient. I have to cook the pumpkin pie on two different temperatures for two different amount of times. I had a lot of issues getting the oven to go down 50 degrees to cook the pie for the second half. So it got slightly burned on the top. I tried! In the end it tasted fine and passed K's inspection. My mother's sisters begged her to make her pear cake which they had not had in over 20 years. She made it and it came out beautifully! When I was very young my mother used to bake all the time and was even interviewed for an article in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. 

Thanksgiving morning I took T and L to school. K and I did most of the preparing for the meal. K peeled all the potatoes for me! That made me sooo happy! It was nice just the two of us in the kitchen getting ready without any little distractions. 

These two girls LOVE to dress alike! I hope they stay young forever! 

Later we picked L up at school at 12.30pm. My two aunts and cousin arrived around 1.30pm for appetizers and drinks. When T arrived home from school we got ready to eat our big meal. We had a yummy turkey, roasted potatoes, carrot soufflé, green beans, stuffing, corn, and rolls. Then for dessert we had our pumpkin pie and pear cake with cream. We had a great meal and before we knew it it was 6pm, and K needed to be at soccer practice at 6.30pm. Thanksgiving was officially over…back to the routine. 

When we got back from soccer we got to facetime Grandpa and Grandma C at their house. That was definitely the highlight of the children's day. They really miss everyone back at home. Here is a picture of everyone talking to us…I just love this picture!!

Overall we had a good day even though I did not get to watch the Macy's Parade. And no, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Ireland (you would not believe how many Americans think they celebrate Thanksgiving in Ireland). The main lesson I learned its really hard to entertain when you DO NOT have a dishwasher. Ohhh how I miss my dishwasher! 

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I said a prayer of gratitude for the life that I've been given and the family and friends that mean so much to me. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!