Happy Thanksgiving!!!

well, it's official. my first ever thanksgiving as hostess went off so well i can hardly believe it. at first i didn't even think i would be able to find turkey (kalkun in estonian). at several grocery stores all i could find was small chickens! i was almost resigned to the fact that this thanksgiving would be turkey-free when i found, at a small market near my home, turkey! they had small birds, the size of my head, not suitable for a large dinner party. but they had large, actually extremely large, turkey legs. they weighed in at about 5 pounds each! so i purchased three as i was expecting about 10 for dinner. i planned to cook the turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin-cheese cake, and apple pie. each guest was asked to bring a side dish and whatever they would like to drink, traditional thanksgiving dishes were suggested but not mandatory, so there was plenty of food for everyone and more than enough wine. i spent wednesday preparing the desserts and cranberry sauce. somehow by thursday my guest list had expanded to 14! thankfully everyone left with a full stomach and i even managed to have a fridge filled with leftovers! one of my new friends, adam, is vegan so there was some creative cooking so that he would have something to eat. i wasn't sure how the vegan stuffing would turn out but it tasted just as good as my moms! i think the addition of estonian black bread really made the difference. but my favorite had to be the pumpkin-cheese cake with ginger bread crust, got the recipe off the internet then switched ginger bread for graham crackers. mainly because it's impossible to find graham crackers in estonia but it turned out so well i think i'll have to make it this way again and again. one guest even brought feather head-dresses for us to wear, not very politically correct, but very fun. well, hope all of your thanksgiving celebrations were just as wonderful. so true that it's not really about the proper menu or fine china (we had paper plates and plastic wine glasses) but about the people you choose to spend this day with. i am so thankful that just a few months into my grant i have managed to find people that i could be happy to share this holiday with. so thankful.