Thanksgiving!

Something has come to my attention recently, that something is that my host mum doesn't make eggnog during christmas! We were talking about warm drinks, because we were making Glüwein (fill you in, in a second) and I asked if Germans happen to make eggnog for christmas. She says "what's that?"

Glühwein: warm up wine not quite to boiling that is very typical of Germany. Now that the christmas markets have opened up and christmas is around the corner I am hearing a lot about it. I wasn't very impressed, but I guess it beats drinking cold wine outside in the winter, right?

Now for Thanksgiving...

Thursday felt a little weird, knowing that all my friends in the states were celebrating and had Thursday and Friday off. Here in Germany everyone just went on as usual. I mean, of course they would because they dont't celebrate it, but it felt lt weird to me, especially because I wouldnt make thanksgiving dinner until Sunday because my host mom had a meeting.

On Friday a bunch of us American exchange students (plus a frenchie, kiwi, and aussie) celebrated Thanksgiving together. I'd say it was very successful. All in all there were about 12 of us I think. We all brought our own dishes.

Here are the guys with the turkey just outta the oven - they were pretty impressed.

Frenchie with her Ratatouille

 There were potatoes, spinach dish, two stuffed turkeys wrapped in bacon, pumpkin pie (mine), pavlova (kiwi dish), and shephards pie. We even did the proper "I am Thankful for...", and a toast, and maybe I might've heard someone trying to say what they could remember of the thanksgiving prayer!

The Meal.

Even though it wasn't the same thanksgiving that I have had back home, I think all of us were happy to be together and celebrate something that had been so important to us back in the states (: Besides we are basically family to eachother.

The Group (with a few germans)

On Sunday I came home and made Thanksgiving for my family. I managed to put together, with a lot of help from my mom, a chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans. Success!

Today my host mom and I made christmas cookies. I made chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. She says they are Ultra American cookies. Tomorrow I go to Berlin, hopefully I will send off my Christmas package for my family before I get on the train. Then I will meet with my distrikt and we will go to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen and later to a Weihnachtsmarkt. I want to get good sleep tonight because we will have a long day tomorrow!