Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had or is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. As I write this my family back home is probably finishing up their cooking, making their way to my grandmother's house, and eagerly waiting until the hour they can finally dig into all that delicious food. I wish I could be home and with them for all this, but being away will make the next time I see them all that more special. As for this year I still had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. It started out with a delicious cup of hot chocolate because believe it or not the temperature has seriously dropped here in Luang Prabang. My students are walking around all bundled in their fur coats. I'm not quite that bad yet, but I have been wearing a jacket and putting on a pair of jeans after classes.

After I warmed up with my nice cup of cocoa I headed to school. In spirit of having to teach on Thanksgiving I tossed the text book (figuratively of course) and read my students the story of the very first Thanksgiving. After I read them the story of how the pilgrims and Native Americans came together, I taught them about today's traditions and had them make hand turkeys. Yes that's right, I made my college students draw hand turkeys. They seemed to get into it, and on their turkeys I made them each write a few things they were thankful for. They wrote the usual family, friends, and of course teacher Dani. (Yes that is what my students call me, teacher Dani. Also can I mention that I've never seen my name spelled wrong in so many ways. Dane was the most popular form) 

Once my students finished their turkeys and I had decided that I had had enough fun torturing them by making them stand up and read what they wrote, I headed back home to wrap up my cooking. My friends and I were planning our own Thanksgiving dinner for which I made macaroni and cheese and homemade bread. (You can find the recipes I used here and here. Of course there were adaptations like there always are with anything you cook when you live in Laos) The dinner was pretty successful I thought. We had all the stereotypical foods present (well minus the turkey we substituted with chicken) and stuffed our stomachs until they hurt. Its not a Thanksgiving dinner if your stomach doesn't hurt afterwards right? After dinner we all managed to find a little bit more room for a slice of pumpkin pie, and filled plates with leftover for dining on the next day. 

Again I hope everyone had or is having a great Thanksgiving. It is my favorite of holidays and I am thankful that I was still able to celebrate even halfway across the world. And now its on to Christmas season, and as much as I love Thanksgiving you better believe now that its the day after I am going into full on bring the holiday cheer to Laos mode. Let the Christmas music, the cookie baking, and the secret Santa shopping begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!