After celebrating Halloween in May, our Halfway Holidays continued with Thanksgiving in June. Although the issues with our tenants had certainly been a nightmare, we still had a lot to be thankful for. For one thing, we had a roof over our heads, plenty of food, and — most importantly — our friend Melisa.
This year, we started a new tradition: using a smaller holiday tree and giving it a makeover that reflects whichever holiday we’re celebrating. For this one, we decorated it with artificial leaves instead of ornaments and recycled our Halloween Jack-O’-Lanterns by turning them into regular pumpkins — a perfect symbol of Thanksgiving and the fall season back home.
Of course, the biggest thing about Thanksgiving is the food, especially the turkey. That said, finding turkey in Córdoba City, Argentina, can be a real challenge. Last year, during real Thanksgiving, we had to make do with a store-bought rotisserie chicken. This year, though, we were determined to go all out for our Halfway to Thanksgiving celebration.
Admittedly, prepping the turkey was… an adventure. We forgot to thaw it until the night before. (Rookie mistake!) The next morning turned into a full-blown wrestling match between me, a frozen bird, and a bag of frozen giblets that refused to come out. I swear, I nearly got frostbite trying to free that thing. It took me over an hour — but once that bag was out, we seasoned the turkey, crossed our fingers, and popped it into our electric oven.
We had no idea how it was going to turn out. It was our first time using an electric oven — our trusty gas one is currently broken — so there was a bit of nervous anticipation in the air. About six and a half hours later, we finally pulled the turkey out. Even though carving is traditionally done at the table, we decided to slice into it early, just to make sure it was fully cooked.
To our relief… it was perfect! Juicy, golden, and everything we’d hoped for. We transferred it onto our decorative holiday platter and began setting up the rest of the feast.
In addition to the turkey, we had:
Mashed potatoes!
With our family so far away, it’s become so important to surround ourselves with good, reliable, and non-toxic friends we can share these moments with.
And yes… before you ask — the turkey sitting on my husband’s stomach, the one on the plate, and the leaves above our heads were all added later. We used the leaves to cover the rather tragic state of our ceiling (thanks, humidity). I promise I’ll get it fixed… someday.
Before we ended the night, we set up our dessert table in front of our “Thanksgiving tree.” Some of the treats included pudding cups, pumpkin muffins, and a plate of Oreos given a festive turkey makeover.
Now, you’re probably asking yourself where the pies were — because no Thanksgiving is complete without pie. Well… let’s just say that after wrestling that turkey all day, the thought of making two pies (pumpkin and apple) felt like running a marathon. We decided to skip them this time and promised ourselves we’d make them ahead of time when real Thanksgiving rolls around in November.
With Halfway to Thanksgiving officially wrapped up, we immediately began planning our next Halfway Holiday — Christmas in July.
I’ll tell you all about that one in my next post!
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