Una giornata di ringrazimiento

The 22lb turkey that I carried home

on the bus in my backpack, threatening to take people

down who bumped into me. Forget mace, I might

have found my new self-defense aid

That face says "You all don't have any idea

that I have no idea how to cut into this thing"

and then the destruction ensued

On the menu, scalloped sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts

with bacon, mashed potatoes, fennel, apple sausage stuffing,

pumpkin soup, pomegrante, parmesan, arugula salad....

My 16 non-American guests seemed excited....

To finish it off, pumpkin cheesecake, kentucky

derby pie (not pictured) and a pumpkin pie made

by a colleague who really wanted to understand

and find Crisco in Rome

Like a lot (most) of my grand ideas, they seem really easy and fun in my head while I'm concocting them. You may remember - running 35k on no training with a backpack with a five course meal inside? or when I decided to buy an SUV so I could sleep in it? start a jewelry company that makes people's ears bleed? or countless others. Well in thinking about Thanksgiving, here's a bit of went through my head - "1) I mean I owe it to my colleagues and friends as the token American to give them a Thanksgiving; 2) I should invite everyone (including the IT people) since THAT is the spirit of thanksgiving; 3) I should really take more advantage of having a big apartment/garden and have people over more often before I leave; 4) I love cooking, it will be fun!" So what I didn't think about was 1) I don't own a car and feeding 16 people sort of requires the transport of a lot of food into my kitchen for me to transform it into Thanksgiving; 2) I don't even know/understand what the breast side of the turkey is; 3) my kitchen is smaller than my bathroom and my oven doesn't exactly have a temperature, so much in that it has a mind of its own where I just light it with a lighter; 4) finding Thanksgiving ingredients (cranberry sauce (forget cranberries); marshmallows, pecans, etc) in Italy is like finding an Italian without a puffy jacket.

When I shared these thoughts and non-thoughts with my Mom, she said, "No, Elizabeth, what are you thinking?, you can't do that, just make it a pot-luck". To which I said, "MOM ITS THANKSGIVING, I have to deliver America to these people, I can't ask them to bring America to me". And if my Mom had thought back to my high school years, she would have realized that her words ("you can't do that") were all the motivation I needed to make sure that I did. Here's a few of the highlights of my Italian day of giving Thanks:

-Transport: I used my trusty back and legs to get the turkey home, and quickly realized I was going to need to call in reinforcements for the 10lbs of potatoes, bottles of wine, etc. etc. So I called my new best friend, the Smart Car parked at Termini; hiked over to the huge/cheap weekend market and piled my backpack and arms with all the veggies and fruits I would need and hiked back, worth every penny and I've discovered I love driving in Rome mostly cause there are no rules

-Labour: As I mentioned, my kitchen is far from equipped, but I managed to mash 5lbs of potatoes with a fork; chop a 1lb of nuts by hand; roast a pumpkin to then mash up for soup, and brine a turkey in a garbage bag.

-Ingredients: Since some ingredients are just impossible to find, I had to get creative and make my pumpkin cheesecake crust out of a random cookie here that is *sort of* like a graham cracker, had to make a pie with hazlenuts instead of pecans, only make all butter crusts, and more. But luckily, I did manage to find cranberry sauce and marshmallows at a little store in Trastevere that sells a few random American goods including, yes it's true, occasionally Cheezits

-The Spirit of Thanksgiving: Since none of my guests had ever celebrated Thanksgiving (or at least not with a real American), and many of them said how they were excited "from the movies", I not only felt a lot of pressure but also contemplated playing some tricks on them and just telling them that certain things were a tradition. In the end, when I told them that we all go around and say what we're thankful for, they actually thought I was joking, and then Bossy Beall came out and I made everyone go around and say something

-Fails: So you might have noticed that I'm quite proud of myself for pulling this off, however there were a few fails of the day, 1) I totally forgot about making the gravy I was so excited to just get the turkey out of the oven, but luckily I had anticipated this blunder and once I realized, I quickly whipped up a package that I had purchased *just in case* and luckily no one's had real gravy anyway; 2) after everyone departed and I finished patting myself on the back, I tackled the dishes and then passed out. I awoke the next morning to my bathtub full of Thanksgiving sink gook, with no option but to shower ankle deep in it. So I guess Italian pipes can't handle the butter/grease/etc. that we pour into our bodies for Tgiving

And in sum, I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to live a year in Italy, and for all of you who have kept me as a constant part of your lives no matter the distance. Being far away during the holidays makes me even more appreciative of all of you back home, and for this crazy adventure.

I can't think of a better way to round this post off than with one of my favorite non-native English speaker mistakes and just say - THANKS A LOT*

*non-native speakers are used to saying Thanks a million in their language (spanish, french, italian), and somehow when they want to say this in English they end up with "thanks a lot" instead of many thanks or something similar. It never fails to crack me up