Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in another country

Then more things change, the more they stay the same.

 I haven't been in Canada for a Thanksgiving now for a number of years due to business trips so it was good to keep that consistency.

According to the local Expat community Thanksgiving is an exclusive American only holiday.  It was quite funny watching the looks on people's faces as we told them that we would be shopping for a turkey on the weekend.  A turkey? they would cry in unison while quickly scouring their mental calendars to determine, if indeed, they had missed October and most of November.  In some cases the mental calendar already had them into December, having completely bypassed Autumn altogether.  

So our mission this past week was to educate the neighbor folk on the fact that we Canadians have something to be thankful for AND to find a turkey.  Hard to say really which was going to be harder.  

We'll start with the education piece...mainly Aussies and Americans in this category.  The Americans couldn't get over the fact that Thanksgiving is actually tied to the harvest and not to shopping and football.  The Aussies, more in tune with America than us colonial cousins, seemed to be on the late November program as well.  As for the Czechs, they apparently have nothing to be thankful for despite the plethora of beer, cheap sausage and size 10 bodies.  No Thanksgiving for you!  (At least I  don't think so anyway.  There was a national holiday on a Tuesday in September that no one was able to tell me what it was for.  It coulda been Thanksgiving or  "Take Your Dog for a Walk Day".  All I know is that the Metro was empty and lots of people were walking their dogs.)

Now for turkey. Getting a whole turkey to roast at any time of year is a challenge.  You either have to order it ahead of time from Robertsons Butchers or you have to hope.  At the time , hope seemed to be a good strategy, so we ignored Robertsons and instead went to Macro - the local Costco equivalent.  Macro on a good day is a challenge; anyone who owns their own business shops there so it is always crowded, noisy and scary.  Scary cause you don't always know what you have to buy in bulk or what you can buy just one or two of.  For example, you are ok if you want one roll of paper towel, but God help you if you try to buy anything less than a crate of eggs.  And I mean a crate -as in hundreds.  If you approach the cash with the wrong number of eggs, the cashier lady will just look at you with venom in her eyes for a few seconds before she launches into her "not enough eggs" tirade ..... all in Czech of course.  We have learned to smile back in Anglicky and say 'pardon'.  Which makes her even madder cause she knows we will leave our 10 eggs with her to put back.  

On this trip however, the eggs were the least of our problem as we couldn't find a turkey. If only tradition called for a juicy pig's knee or lips and assholes (better known as sausage) then we would have been all set.  As it was, nary a turkey to be found.  Goose, duck, pidgeonski - but no turkey; at least not an intact one.  We did manage to find legs and a breast which is good cause I think deep down Stu is a leg and breast man.  That he is a leg and breast man just went horribly wrong for him when we got married.  But thats a story for another day.   

So that is what we went with.  OMG.. (Thats oh-em-gee if you are not from the Facebook generation).  It is sooooooo not the same.  How do you stuff a leg? Or a breast? Or make proper gravy? Or pull the wings off and eat the crackled skin?  The short answer is that you can't.  But it was ok.  It was turkey at least.  And stuffing cooked in the oven, and brussel sprouts, and carrots.  

And us together.  Which I think was the whole point.