Thanksgiving was my first major holiday away from home and I wanted to do something for it. I also saw it as an opportunity to give my host family a new experience. The best way I could do this was to make a Thanksgiving dinner. When I proposed the idea to my host parents they said that it was a great idea. The whole experience was amazing and crazy. We did something that very few people if any have ever done for Thanksgiving.
A Thanksgiving dinner requires a lot of work, a lot of delicious food, and people to share it with. Along with my host family there was Julianas host family, Natalies host family, and Dakota. Juliana is from Colombia and is in Pilsen with me. Natalie is from Mexico and in the city Klatovy. Klatovy is an hour directly South from Pilsen. Dakota is from Oregon, USA and is also in Klatovy. Dakota and I cooked most of the main dishes for dinner. These included: The Turkey, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed potatoes, and Sweet potatoes. Juliana brought amazing cornbread and cupcakes, and Natalie brought an amazing pumpkin pie.
Thanksgiving in the United States is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. We celebrated it on the Friday after. Thursday afternoon I picked up Dakota from the train station. The first thing we did was look at the christmas market. We then went shopping and got matching clothes including a light up christmas hat. For dinner that night we made hotdogs.
After dinner we took the Turkey out to prepare it. It was 18 pounds. There were only 12 people coming and 18 pounds was too much turkey. But we found a solution. We would cut the Turkey in half. We placed the turkey on the cutting board and my host dad sliced it in half. Now we only had 9 pounds of turkey.
The next day Dakota and I began cooking. Our goal was to eat at 19:00 so we began cooking at 11:00. We started by cooking the green bean casserole. We ended up having to go to the store to buy sweetened condensed milk for the casserole. After our trip to the store we continued making the casserole. While the casserole was in the oven we made the sweet potatoes. Our next task was to prepare the turkey and put it in the oven. Once the turkey was in the oven we made the mashed potatoes. People began arriving and everything was going according to plan.
We set all the food out on the table and took our seats. Everything looked like how it was supposed to. Once everyone’s plates were filled with food we began eating. It was really good. I was very relieved when everything tasted good including the turkey. Once everyone finished their plates we brought out the pumpkin pie and cupcakes. They were both super good.
This will be a Thanksgiving that I will always remember.
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