Thanksgiving for ex-pats

Last night was Thanksgiving at our good friend Elisa's apartment. (She runs a balloon company). We celebrated with a full traditional dinner: Turkey, stuffing (plus a vegetarian version), gravy (plus a veggie alternate), mashed potatoes, yams (er, sweet potatoes), cranberry sauce (4 kinds), pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and cornbread. Plus a non-traditional mixed lettuce salad with vinigrette. It was wonderful. It was kosher. It was about 7,000 miles away from the US.

Here in Jerusalem, getting a whole kosher turkey is not nearly as difficult as acquiring the cranberries. Fortunately, another friend, Liat, came from the US by way of France. She smuggled the little berries from the New World.

As we sat around the table without the Macy's parade, Star Trek marathon or football in the background, we realized that only 8 out of 13 people at the table were in some way American. There was some scheming about tricking the Israelis, the Aussie, and the Argentinians at the table into thinking that it was a tradition to go around the table imitating Turkey sounds. In the end, we just asked the foreigners to pass the dark meat.

It was a little sad not being with out families this year, but as I have repeatedly seen in Israel, Thanksgiving is a holiday that can be transplanted. Maybe future Thanksgivings in Israel will have more of our family here...