Thursday was Thanksgiving in America… but not here. Although, when I made a quick run to the store for a big mixing bowl, you’d think it was a holiday with how many cops I saw driving along the way.
Anyway, a few weeks before we had talked about having a kind of “international” day for those of us on staff who aren’t Latvian. But we kinda forgot to organize anything. A few days before Thanksgiving, though, our Latvian director called us up & invited us to his house for dinner on Thanksgiving. We accepted & offered to bring some food dishes along. My honey makes a wonderful pan-baked stuffing.
Somehow, our director found a couple of turkeys in this country. They weren’t very big, maybe about 9 lbs. each. And after we cooked them, we realized how different they are from American turkeys. They tasted alright, but the meat was really tough… not my favorite.
Anyway, the guest list included my wife & me, a young American girl, a young Latvian guy who’d grown in up in the US (so he counted as an American), a young Aussie girl (who was along just for the fun of it), another American lady & our hosts, all Latvian, yet who speak English almost like Americans. We had a great time with food & molled wine & just generally enjoying each other’s company, as we cracked jokes about life & each other.
We had turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, various fresh veggies with dip, and an ironic can of jellied cranberries from the US. See, it turns out that before we ever moved here, my wife sent one lady a care package, which included the Thanksgiving-day-obligatory can of jellied cranberries; the kind that makes that sucking, sliding sound when poured out & then has to be sliced. My wife commented that she had no idea that by sending that package she’d be investing into her own future! 
The whole evening was an unexpected blessing, for which I’m very thankful.
~t
I live in Tyler, Texas.
Laughing about the cranberry sauce! At least it wasn’t a fruitcake she sent over…