Thankful

Thanksgiving away from home is bittersweet (for lack of a better word).

On the one hand, Thanksgiving is the only holiday my family really celebrates as a holiday - the only holiday that, almost without fail, everyone makes an effort to appear for, everyone sets aside. Plus, just being away from the spirit of home for this weekend creates nostalgia. That feeling of everyone coming back and facing themselves just as they are - even if in their "new" lives they're hot shot attorneys, mountain climbers, broadway stars, or medical students. For one weekend, its like things are they way they always were, and that feeling you got your first year in college, that safety of realizing that home hasn't changed, and that every Thanksgiving, its there for you to count on, year in and year out. And to go a year without that feeling is a little unnerving. I'm so far away from everything familiar, everything safe and reassuring...

...but now, I'm creating my own traditions. IESE threw us a "Thanksgiving" but, apart from one tasty turkey, was more an excuse to raise money for charity than to transmit a real feeling of Thanksgiving, at least for the Americans. Don't get me wrong, the charity was a great idea and lots of fun, but it didn't feel like Thanksgiving at all.

 What did feel like Thanksgiving, though, was the potluck dinner Alexa and I threw at our apartment. Her brother and sister came to visit from Boston. They brought along some essential supplies, like stuffing and an inflatable turkey.

The real thing, though, was a little harder (and more expensive) to get, but apparently a gourmet butcher shop will deliver anything for the right price. We picked up two massive turkey and were lucky enough to have a man's man from America's heartland carve it up for us:

We invited most of our American friends, and some other nationalities to mix it up, and ended up having quite an amazing spread:

 Nothing makes me happier than feeding people, and everyone said our Thanksgiving was waaay better than IESE's. The food was amazing and everyone was happy to "celebrate freedom" by stuffing their faces with sweet potato pie and mass quantities of turkey:

Is still Mo'vember, so most of the men are continuing to adorn each picture while "Changing the face of men's health" with their mustaches, for which I too am oh, so grateful.