Happy Thanksgiving Canadians, wherever in the world you are!

Canadian Thanksgiving is not a very well known holiday here in Mexico… we’ve had to do quite a bit of explaining about it’s very existence!  Of course, many of the traditions and holidays that we love and may take for granted as commonplace are very much culturally and geographically rooted.   Because of this we have to work even harder to keep our own holidays and traditions alive for ourselves when living abroad.  Although it wasn’t anything like it usually is, we still managed to put together a Thanksgiving feast, which was actually kind of fun.  To be honest, it was a little weird putting out the few Autumn/Thanksgiving decorations we brought with us with palm tree and sunny sky scenery out the window; it was a little strange setting out glass pumpkins and fake fall leaves… We have to work a bit harder to feel in the spirit too!  Those cool fall days that I so love, with swirling crimson leaves and wood smoke wafting through the air always made me feel all fall-cozy and motivated to put on some soup and bake a pie!  Costco baked our pie this year (only because I could not find canned pumpkin anywhere) and it was actually quite tasty!  My habit for a number of years now has been to serve something that we’ve grown through the summer at Thanksgiving dinner… this year I “harvested” some parsley that is finally ready (haven’t found my green thumb here yet – things just kind of grow weird…can’t quite figure it out) and snipped it into the gravy.  I felt so silly only having parsley to harvest, but it did add some lovely flavour and colour.    We spent some time hunting down a turkey, which I’ve been told are easy to find around US Thanksgiving time, but not so much for our little known Canadian holiday!  In the end we went with stuffed pork tenderloin… the kids were adorable and tried really hard to get into the spirit and normalize this, “You know Mom, it actually kind of does taste like turkey!”  Serving all the normal turkey fixin’s with it helped – sweet potato (with maple syrup of course!), smashed potatoes, homemade dressing, gravy, veggies – and of course pumpkin pie!    While I was prepping the meal, they each in turn wandered into the kitchen, breathing in deeply and sighing out happily that “something smells good!”… It’s my Mom’s dressing recipe… It is aromatherapy for my homesick soul too… so wonderful the power of our senses to send us on these lovely trips down memory lane…

Living where we do right now, we are faced daily with reminders of how blessed we are.

We are very thankful.