So last year I had Thanksgiving dinner in my apartment and although it was a lot of fun it was also stressful and really crowded, so this year I worked with the Tahara International Association (TIA) to host a Thanksgiving Party at the welfare center this past Sunday. What a difference it made! We had six ovens to cook in and they were big enough to fit a normal sized turkey. Like last year I ordered it over the internet from www.themeatguy.jp and had it shipped frozen to my apartment. It just barely fit in my refrigerator but it was definitely worth it.

We had about 12 people. They showed up starting around 10:00 on Sunday. Most of them were ladies from the TIA but we had one guy and two of my friends that I know from school and we had one mom and two kids (one of whom is in the second grade at one of my elementary schools.) I gave a quick run down of how and why we celebrate Thanksgiving in America and then we set about cooking. The original ideal was to have separate groups make different dishes but the timing of things didn't work out so that almost all of them were made separately, but that just meant that everyone could learn how each dish was made. It was a little disorganized but we had everything on the table in about three hours with no major mishaps. Although they did try to set the table with chopsticks instead of forks and knives but we fixed that. This was to be an American meal all the way around.

I think everyone had a good time. The ladies from TIA are especially sweet. I've worked with them before and several of them have come to my adult English classes. But most importantly, I ate until it hurt. And then I came home and took a nap in true Thanksgiving tradition. We sent everyone home with some leftovers, another tried and true tradition. Overall, it was a great party. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays so I was very glad to be able to celebrate it with some real American food this year (although I will say that tako-yaki and turkey last year was fun.)



Making the green bean casserole. They were fascinated by the idea of a casserole. I had to explain that we have many different kinds.


Carving the turkey - this was my first time so I made a mess of it. But it still tasted great.


A traditional Thanksgiving dinner with green bean casserole, stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes with gravy.


And pumpkin pie of course! I didn't supervise this one closely so it came out a little dry because they didn't add all the cream the recipe called for. They were worried it looked too soupy.




Happy Thanksgiving from Tahara!