Thanksgiving

Thank you for inviting us
To your Thanksgiving dinner.
A day spent in your company
Is invariably a winner.

Thank you for the time you spent

Preparing all the food;

For making us feel welcome,
You have our gratitude!

By Joanna Fuchs

Well for an Australian girl living in Sweden, I’ve certainly turned into an American. On Wednesday night we are flying down to the south of Sweden, Malmö – our old hometown – to celebrate Thanksgiving with an American friend of mine. I cannot wait, it is going to be so much fun. I haven’t seen her or her family in the longest of times, so it’s super exciting. We will be staying with Tina Sparkles, so you cannot get much better I’m telling you!

The normal Thanksgiving tradition is that the girls spend the day cooking and chatting and the boys do their thing. Well that was until 5.5 children popped onto the scene, so now the girls will spend the day cooking and the boys will run after the 5 little girls that they helped procreate. In previous years we have cooked up a storm that Martha Stewart would be proud of, but with the said 5 children and a few other issues, we will be adapting things to more suit our current lifestyles.  And to fit in with the nap I am planning on taking in the afternoon. Actually, come to think of it once we shoo the kids and menfolk out the way it’s now highly likely we will ‘cook’ all day long (chat/nap/chat) then just order take out.

But there is one thing I’m hoping that will not change, even if we do end up getting take out, I’ll still be making my favourite; Classy Green Bean Casserole. This is just delish and the you-can’t-mess-it-up factor is very high:

Where are your Classy Green Beans Martha?

3 (14.5 ounce) cans French cut green beans, drained

1 cup sour cream

1/2 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper

1/2 cu coarsely crushed buttery round crackers

1 tablespoon butter, melted.

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350°F/175°C
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the green beans, sour cream, condensed soup, salt and pepper. Spoon into a 2 quart casserole dish. Stir melted butter into the crushed crackers then sprinkle over the top of the casserole.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated over, until lightly browned and bubbly.

Mmmmm cannot wait.

Hello Tivoli!

On our to-do list is also to go over the bridge to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit the Christmas markets at Tivoli. As the kids are 1 + 3, this maybe just for me but I am blaming it on them. They will love it, no they will. But I may love it just that bit more.

There are only two things that could ruin my master plan of Thanksgiving/Christmas/Danish four-day weekend fun:

1. the whole trip started from the fact that we found super cheap plane tickets and purchased them, convincing ourselves the trip would be fine even though both departure times fell right during the kids normal bedtimes. This is a suicide mission, believe me. We told ourselves weeks ago that they’ll be so tired, they will just sleep on the plane. Nup, they won’t. We will have ourselves a haggard pregnant mum, a stressed dad and 2 hyper kids that are over-excited by everything and still running on the sugar lollypop we gave them to shut them up at the departure gate.

And if we make the trip alive, we risk;

2. tis the season to be jolly, but it’s also the season of the Swedish winter vomiting bug. It’s on its way and it even made the news. And if the kid I saw spewing on his dad at daycare drop off this morning was anything to go on, this year it’s a particularly nasty strain. Please Lord save us. Well he didn’t last year, when we made the same trip. Started off with The Flash spewing all over me on the plane ride down and ended with every family member vomiting on Tina’s bathroom floor. She never lost her sparkle though. And invited us back.

Wish us luck, with the ill-time flights, the hope for non-illness and the cooking of the turkey.

And whilst both my passports are not from the U.S, I can still give thanks, for all of the above and more. For this adventurous life all around me. For all the people that surround. For the strange decisions we make. For the laughs. For my friends that are my family. And for the new life growing inside me that is about to turn our lives up.side.down. just like a Tivoli ride.