The more trans-atlantic of you will be aware that last weekend was NOT Thanksgiving, however because I was unable to return to my favourite US city, Seattle WA for actual Thanksgiving, my new friends and colleagues invited me to stay with them for an early Thanksgiving. This is however technically my second Thanksgiving in Seattle, because last time I was there happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving. It is also the only trip I have taken purely for pleasure with no work component at all (and hence done on the cheap as much as possible to stop Mrs Jones getting cross with me).
I stayed in my friends' home on Bainbridge Island, which is a 30 minute ferry journey away from downtown Seattle. It is accessible by a bridge at its northern tip, but that would then require a 2½ hour drive around a peninsula to get into Seattle itself. So it is handy for Seattle commuters and yet feels like a world away. It is beautiful, peaceful, damp and green, with lots of space and trees, and bald eagles (although our three attempts to see eagles failed each time). I was made very welcome and had a great time.
I wasn't sure whether there were any particular traditions around Thanksgiving that I needed to understand. I had seen "Addams Family Values", so I knew it was something to do with the pilgrim fathers receiving a turkey from the indians and repaying them by taking the whole country. I also knew it was the date when that kid in Sleepless in Seattle rings Doctor Marsha's radio show and sets in motion the events which lead to Meg Ryan kissing Tom Hanks on the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day, so it felt like an appropriate place to be celebrating it. But the main tradition appears to be over-eating, and in this case eating a selection of dishes derived from different family traditions. Apparently it is important to include cranberries somewhere in the meal, and in this case we had tinned cranberries in jelly on the table as a kind of revolting-looking after-thought which nobody dared to eat. The main focus of the meal is of course a turkey, which we ate with a delicious homemade stuffing that I hope to replicate at home this Christmas. Apparently not everybody has gravy with it, but I volunteered to make it as part of my contribution to proceedings.
I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to be thankful for specific things, or whether we were supposed to show our gratitude in particular ways, but we didn't. I was just grateful to have been invited because it was such a lovely relaxing weekend.
So what have I learnt from this delightful experience?
(1) My pastry making skills are better than I had thought - my homemade English-style mince pies went down very well.
(2) My gravy however needs more work: I should have skimmed the fat off the meat juices before adding the flour, then it might not have had the consistency of porridge. Tasted good though.
(3) You can have too much of a good thing, particularly nibbles when there is an entire roast turkey to follow. Sausage puffs (made from processed sausage and processed cheese) are very moreish but I'd have been better to eat fewer.
(4) Lots of apparently innocent country songs are really quite dirty when you actually listen to the lyrics.
(5) You get a lot more house for your buck if you move from the San Francisco Bay Area to somewhere like Seattle.
(6) Thanksgiving TV isn't like Christmas TV in the UK: I know this wasn't the real Thanksgiving, but apparently they normally just watch sport? How depressing would that be on Christmas Day.
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