Okay, so that song didn't work so well. Another belated Thanksgiving greeting from Wolfenbüttel. The past 10 days have been busy with Berlin, a visit from Erik's parents (pictures coming soon), and a Thanksgiving trip, so I'm trying to get caught up and find my rhythm again.
We celebrated turkey day by traveling by train on the dreaded Wednesday Before Thanksgiving. As you can imagine, it was a breeze in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving.
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| Elsa was able to catch up on the latest issue of the train magazine. |
We went to visit our (American) friend Patrick, Erik's grad-school friend, and his wife and two little girls. They live in the village of Heeslingen, between Bremen and Hamburg, that makes Wolfenbüttel feel like a sprawling metropolis. Although life in WF is not particularly hectic or stressful, it was still great to have an extremely relaxing getaway to the country.
We stayed on a hobby farm that rents out vacation apartments, and the menagerie was a thrill to our animal loving 2-year-old. The collection included alpacas, goats, 21 Maine Coon cats, 100+ parakeets and parrots, geese, ducks, peacocks, turkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, and a dog.
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| Look at that action shot |
As I mentioned earlier, our turkey was f-r-e-s-h. It was slaughtered at 6am Thanksgiving morning by a nearby farmer, and Patrick picked it up at 8. Speaking of fresh meat, in the midst of the cooking craze, another farmer from the area delivered the family's annual fresh beef share. There it was, a tub of raw beef in various forms, ready to be packaged by Patrick on Thanksgiving morning. We were definitely in the country.
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| Chef Patrick at work. Basting with wine and butter = delicious smells! |
Despite the fact that we had four little girls, age 4 and under, we somehow managed to eat dinner while all of them slept. It was the most peaceful meal I've had in a long time, and I didn't even have to cook it. Thanks Patrick! We were also thankful for the instant friendship that formed between Sofia and Elsa, which gave the rest of us a few more moments of peace and happy days for the little girls.
So, Thanksgiving was observed with a rural North German flair. It did sort of leave me ragingly homesick, however, for the first time since leaving the U.S. 6 weeks ago. I missed running my annual Gobble Gobble Gobble run, missed the Macy's parade on TV, and just generally missed the feeling that it's Thanksgiving and everyone around you knows it.
But now, Holiday Hoolie is unleashed.
I had Thanksgiving dinner in an Italian restaurant here on the island... I was the only American there! FRESH turkey sounds amazing. You can imagine I was pretty homesick, too, though I am very grateful to my friends here who arranged a special dinner partly for me on Thanksgiving Day. Great pictures of your little girls!
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