Canadian Thanksgiving in Another World

The Canadian Thanksgiving was this past weekend and it didn't even occur to me till I spoke to my sister over skype in Canada on Friday afternoon. She talked about how she was going to aunt Claire’s, her home was the perfect spot for thanksgiving, and the conversation took me back to the times I lived in Canada. The fact that I had forgotten that it was thanksgiving almost scared me. I really questioned who I was? Was it the fact that I was in a different world now? Was I really Canadian? Where had time gone? So my sister, Maita, who had also lived in Canada for 6yrs, and I decided we had to celebrate thanksgiving somehow.

On Saturday afternoon Avon and I strolled down the isles of Broadacers Spar looking for the ingredients to our first Johannesburg thanksgiving dinner. We were sure we were going to find a turkey there; however, when we saw the size of the turkey we got very intimidated. Who was going to eat it all? And I wasn’t sure if I would cook it good enough for anyone to like it. Suddenly the look of the huge turkey drum stick seemed like a better option.

That evening I figured I could apply the same turkey recipe to the massive drum stick instead of the whole turkey. “Rub turkey with seasoning (sage, garlic and salt)”… I thought not a problem. Stuff turkey with whole apple – mmm a slice would work and I stuffed it under the skin of the turkey…stuff is stuff right. “cover turkey with champagne” …mmm apple cider should work just fine, although Avon had to rescue me coz I thought beer would work better. I then placed carrots sweet potato and potatoes around the turkey drum and covered it all with foil. “Dear God please may this turkey taste good.” While I was cooking the turkey Avon cooked the Lamb curry ..our back up plan just in case the turkey tasted crap.

The thanksgiving dinner turned out great. We decided not to go too hectic in who we invited (I was more worried that people would think the whole thing was strange). The turkey turned out so tasty…we actually wished we had bought the whole darn thing. Maita made rhubarb pie which was amazing …especially for her first pie. Reagans Banoffee was delicious; Avon’s Lamb curry spiced us up with flavour.

As much as thanksgiving was supposed to be a joyous occasion, a wave of depression came over me this past weekend. The whole thanksgiving experience made me really miss Canada in a strange and confused way. I thought of my Grandmother and my whole other half of my family in Canada, the white half. I thought of how the weather was right now and my friends which I had left behind. I was beginning to realise that the more I got involved in my life here in Johannesburg the more my memories of Canada almost seemed foreign. Not that I don’t like the season I am in now, I love it in fact, but how do we live in the present without loosing the good memories of the past? To they just remain memories….only time will tell. ..I will just continue to give thanks and thanks for thanksgiving.