Il Giorno di Ringraziamento

Thursday's Italian Thanksgiving Feast went off practically without a hitch! Charlotte and I had so much help from Brittany and our other friends that we were able to be relatively calm and even enjoy the party ourselves! In the morning, we woke up bright and early to go to the fresh market for fruits and veggies. Then at 10, we brought out Il Tacchino (The Turkey) and attempted to clean her. That was certainly a gross experience...but also very hilarioius. Brittany has a pretty funny video...maybe she can put it up for you guys to see!

Anyways, so we got that all done, made the stuffing, stuffed the bird, and had her in the oven at 12 o'clock on the dot, exactly according to plan. Hehe...we had a lot of fun counting the hours on the turkey like all the recipes do...we'd run around saying "5 minutes until Hour 3! 5 minutes until basting time!" It was fun. Throughout the day, we just went back and forth between our kitchen and the boy's kitchen next door preparing pork, basting The Turkey, chopping vegetables, etc. We were able to get a lot done ahead of time, and so it was less stressful once everyone arrived.

Our guests all looked so nice, and enjoyed appetizers and wine while dinner was coming together. The Italian boys were way over-interested in the preparations of things and kept getting in the way asking questions! So we kicked them out of the kitchen, telling them they couldn't eat if they returned (it didn't work though...they were as bothersome as ever!). But finally, everything came together and it was Turkey Time! I carried it from the kitchen to the "dining room" (it was really our living room stuffed with ours and boy's kitchen tables) where we had a big uncovering of The Turkey for everyone to see! There were lots of oooohs and aaaahs and picture taking as Charlotte and I stood there with Alessandro, since we had given him the honor of carving The Turkey.


He did a fabulous job, and we all got food from the buffet and sat down to eat! The turkey/gravy was a little too salty, but other than that, everything turned out wonderfully! It was so funny to watch the Italians as the whole thing had been coming together over the last few days. They just didn't understand what a big deal it was. But once they came over, saw all the food and how nice everyone looked, they started to understand that this was a great, important holiday for us! Even the Americans were impressed.

It was so lovely just sitting back and watching everyone enjoy the meal, laughing and eating, talking in English and Italian, marveling at how we had pulled off such an authentic, traditional Thanksgiving Dinner! We were pretty proud of ourselves as well since it was our first Thanksgiving on our own, we had relatively little guidance, and we were in a country that doesn't cater to the holiday!

I had such a wonderful time, and was made fun of for going around and telling everyone I was thankful for them. Even though I missed my family and my own Thanksgiving a ton, I was able to be with my Italian family here, which was priceless. It was an incredible experience to share such a huge part of our American culture with the Italians. That night, as I lay in bed, I relived the night and just smiled to myself. It was a very delicious, rewarding Thanksgiving.