After Thanksgiving is over

"What are you thankful for?" list from the Americans

     I survived Thanksgiving.  One holiday down, so now I've just got Christmas to survive yet, and then I think I'll be okay.  Well, Easter, too.  And 4th of July.
     As I said before, on Thursday I went to a Thanksgiving dinner with other Americans.  It was in a town nearby, only about 15 minutes away.  The best part (other than the party itself) was that I got off of school for the afternoon to go there.  I was picked up at 3 by the American family that had invited me to come along.


Thanksgiving dinner!



     Once we got to the church (we ate in a hall at the church), we delivered the foods to where they belonged.  I brought chocolate chip cookies (I know, not exactly "Thanksgiving", but... still delicious, and I'm definately thankful for them).  We chatted all together for about a half an hour as more people arrived, and then we all sat down at the tables and bombarded the buffet line.  I could hardly believe everything there was.  All the foods I had forgotten about, all the ones I had subconciously been missing but never realized it!  Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, canned corn....  There was so much that I just had to go back for seconds- I couldn't fit it all on my plate at one time!  And I didn't want to cut myself short of this chance to gorge on familiar foods.  : )  So, that's what I did.  I just sat there and enjoyed the meal, and met a whole lot of people at the same time.

     After I was finished, there was a bit of time left before the rest were done eating.  I guess that growing up in the Weiss Family household has taught me to eat fast while the food is there.  Luckily, there were some coloring pages there that we could color in.  Alright, so they were really meant for the kids, but everyone's a child inside, right?  I colored mine in, all bright and such, and later hung it up in my room.

     Of all the 35 or 40 people there, I'm sad to say that I was the only Lions fan.  A lot of them were Packers fans.  Which was a bit hard for me to swallow, since the Lions played the Packers on Thanksgiving Day.  We tried to watch a bit on the Internet, but the connection was bad and broke up.

      I somehow managed to forget about dessert.  As soon as I saw it, though, I knew that I had made a major mistake in not leaving room.  How could I have left out the most important part to a classic Thanksgiving dinner?!  Pumpkin pie....  apple pie.... pecan pie.... chocolate chip cookies.... (wait, that doesn't belong on a classic Thanksgiving table! haha)  It was terrible;  I was already full from the main dinner, and yet... I wasn't going to get the chance to eat any of these desserts again for a long while.  I'll admit it, I still managed to eat some more.  But you know what?  Thanksgiving comes but once a year.

     Unless, of course, you're living my life in the year 2011.  I had the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving twice!  Friday was the German version of this American tradition.  I didn't know how to stuff a turkey and all, so we changed it up a bit.  Mama had a recipe for turkey in an onion sauce, so that's what we made.  Mashed potatoes to go with it, as well as some pumpkin slices.  Which I'd never had before, never seen before, and never heard of before.  I tried two, but I didn't really like them a lot.  We invited some neighbors over to eat with us and share the memory.  They asked me why we even have Thanksgiving, and I told them about the Pilgrims and the Indians.... you know, the classic story.  I don't know how much truth there is to it, but I like it anyways.  Afterwards we sat at the table and talked into the night.

My favorite from the list of things to be thankful for (no, I
didn't write that on the board)

     In other news, yesterday there was no soccer practice.  In the winter, we only practice on Fridays, and that's inside a gym.  So, I went to choir with Mama instead.  She had heard me mention once that I enjoy singing and invited me to join her at the next practice.  I had a lot of fun!  The choir sings a capella, and it was a bit hard for me to find the right notes.  It was the first time I had sung together in a choir.  Well, not counting the school choirs back at St. Lorenz in 1-6th grade.  It reminded me a lot of Venner, the choir that used to be at Frankenmuth High School.  When I was in 8th grade and watched my brother and sister perform in that group, I had wanted so bad to be a part of the choir.  I never did join, but I still continued to love singing in church and to the radio.  Singing in the group in Haemelerwald was a wonderful experience, and I'm planning to go again next week!