Thanksgiving!!

Yesterday, Saturday, was one of the first Thanksgivings that Finland has seen. It was quite a largish celebration. I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of Kirsi already preparing the pumpkin pie crust - so I hurried downstairs to help. We cooked most of the day; we stopped at about 4:30. By 5:30 all of the guests were here (almost all the exchange students in Porvoo plus some of my Finnish friends, including: two Italian girls, a Belgian girl, a German girl, a Japanese boy, a Thai girl, plus four Finns). A reporter even came from the local newspaper to ask us questions about Thanksgiving, our exchanges, and life in Porvoo. I started out by asking what people knew about Thanksgiving. The answers were mainly "Kalkkunaa, kiítetään...", "Turkey, people are thankful...". So I gave them a brief history of Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it today. Then we went around again, and everybody said what they were thankful for in their native language. Then, after a few more questions from the reporter, we began to eat. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, lingonberry sauce, salad, and a side of cooked mushrooms. For dessert we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I think everyone liked the food; Kirsi and Jari are wonderful cooks. The decorations during the meal were also quite something. Kirsi had gone out a couple of days before to buy special Thanksgiving decorations, so all of the colors during the meal were matching, with many deep reds and browns. After dinner we just chatted away for a couple of hours until everyone had to go home. It was an amazing Thanksgiving, so much more than I ever could have hoped for in a country were pumpkin puree is so difficult to find (we had to get it from Helsinki!). And much of it was due to Jari and Kirsi helping out, so I'm obviously extremely grateful to them. Next stop on the Holiday train: Christmas =D.