Everyone Is Doing It: Happy Spanskgiving

Haaaaaalllooooo
updating to update, not the most exciting of reasons to give you all a clue into my life, but here it is anyway...

I survived my first Thanksgiving in a far away land! Not only did I host Thanksgiving (which involved at least 4-5 hours of cleaning and prep before anyone got here), but I made my first turkeys EVER! Not 1, no no, ladies and gentlemen, I made 2 deliciously dead turkeys, so lovingly named (after the fusion of Austrian and American culture) Anrulf and Billy Bob. I started with the cleaning on black Friday (sad to have missed the real deal at home...not, cleaning my apt. was enough!), and could barely sleep on Friday night because I was so nervous about not poisoning everyone with my lack of turkey baking skillz!! I popped the first buttered and herbed up turkey in at 8 am (yes, I did get up at 7 am on a Saturday, shock and awe), and pulled him out at 12:15 to put his brother in. I find it an incredibly disgusting and interesting process to actually make the turkeys...one forgets that he/she is eating an animal that once lived, breathed, and had blood until one must actually cook an entire carcass in the oven. Funny that the ex-vegetarian did the deed as well....eeeech, thoughts of pulling the neck out and blood coming from the inside of the turkey still haunt me.

Anyway, everyone arrived a little later than expected (but what else is new? This is Austria...Austria is about on the same time schedule as Spain or Italy which mean everyone IS late...) but no matter, we had time to bake the turkeys and prepare everything with the extra time :) There were about 15 of us total, and after a delicious starter of antipasti (the Italian tradition, which I realized is often what we start with since it is cheese, olives, cured meats and breads that you are supposed to dip in olive oil. Who knew that I was secretly Italian somehow?) and cocktails and wine.

When everyone finally arrived and we got everything warmed up the FEASTING started! Let me tell you, this was one of the BEST and most delicious thanksgivings I have ever had, especially since it was ALL homemade (except the buns, of course!) and had so much love baked, stirred, and basted in! We not only had the normal fixins for turkey day, but we also had homemade pecan, apple and pumpkin pies along with some coffee and bailey's for dessert. MMMM I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!
Afterwards, the cleanup went pretty smoothly and people came and left as they pleased. It was a wonderful night that couldn't have gone any better, and I am so thankful to everyone who came, it was truly something to be thankful for.

This week is just a filler week for me...I have been checking out the Christkindlmarkts often enough to see what I want to get everyone for their x-mas presents, and been trying to get more and more accustomed to christmastime here in Austria. I am really just ready though for a bit of a break, I am getting so so so so so excited to go home, to see my family and friends, and to not have to think about things so much when I go out to the grocery store (with a CAR) and can leave whenever I WANT TO because there is no bus that I have to catch with the mentality of a science experiment (always +/- 5 minutes, it's an art).

This time of year is particularly hard for me, especially after last year. This is the time when I really was starting to look and feel sick, to feel the effects of the toxic drugs and to slow down at the end of the race. I could barely enjoy Thanksgiving last year because I spent half the time looking at my plate wishing I had enough appetite to really eat it and the other half in the bathroom feeling sick because it was too rich for my sad sad sad stomach. It is amazing what can change within a year and to see the results of it is just mind-boggling...it's almost like what happened was just a bad dream that I can somehow sort of still remember, but it doesn't seem like it was me who went through it. It's like I read what happened somewhere and understand the feelings, but don't really know who wrote the story.
Either way, it seems like it is a better choice not to get to invested in who we were in the past, to not take on those feelings that existed then and translate them to now. Now is not then. Appreciate the struggle and continue on. Much harder to do than it seems...

In any case, 23 days left until I am home safe and sound and back to my puppies, warm weather and Mommacita! I hope that you all have a fabulous week and watch out for the Kramperl (they are already all over the place here in Salzurg!! AAAAH!!!)