Thanksgiving and other stuff

Am already working on Thanksgiving--even though we're not having dinner until Friday. It is much easier to cobble together the necessary ingredients here than it was in Germany, but it's still an American holiday, so the stores aren't exactly stocked with all the stuff you need for the day. The Whole Foods here really helps since it's an American chain, and even Waitrose stocks a special (and priced as such) American Thanksgiving supply that includes a pricey box of Stove Top Stuffing!

Last night, I made 70 Lebkuchen cookies for international fair German booth. Skip says they taste suitably authentic. May make another batch today. ACS is a nut-free school, so the cookies are too.




Some of my Thanksgiving ingredients. Cornmeal. Will have to make my cornbread from scratch as I neglected to have mom bring me more Martha White when she came in October. Cranberry sauce. Tiny little jar. Will need more than one. The biggest bag of pecans I could find. Need three to make one pumpkin pie. Mom and Dad have a ton of pecans in Arkansas that Mom got in Louisiana. If only they could beam me some.


I talked to my friend Mary in Germany this morning. Something she said reminded me of a conversation I had on the Tube about a week ago that I meant to share here. Maddie and I were coming home from church on the train last week and a young man heard our American accents and struck up a conversation. He had just returned from living in the States for 18 months. He traveled all around the country doing soccer clinics. He is back to finish up his degree in Physical Education, but really enjoyed his time in the US and hopes to return some day. He said he really enjoyed the sense of school spirit that American kids have. He said that kids in England aren't attached to their schools like kids in America are. I hadn't thought that school spirit was a uniquely American thing, but he seemed to feel like it was. Wonder where that comes from?

It is really, really cold here. I can't get Maddie to wear gloves to school because she says she can't play on the monkey bars with them on. Priorities. Gotta get the kid in a dance class. She's dancing all over the house. No ballet for her. We're hitting the street dance class at the Park Club.