A Japanese Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a little nontraditional. Nontraditional in the fact that it was my first Thanksgiving away from family and I was spending it in Japan. Thanksgiving kind of sneaked up on Gordon and I. There were no fat, Butterball turkeys at the grocery store or decorations of cornucopias to remind us it was the season. And even though the day before, November 23rd, was a national holiday in Japan (Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day) they only treated it like another day off and not an excuse to eat too much food.

So that left me contemplating what to make for Thanksgiving dinner so that it would actually feel like Thanksgiving. Our first course (appetizer) was guacamole, per Gordon's request.

Hogging the bowl.

Then I decided to make mashed potatoes (anyone who knows Gordon, knows he loves mashed potatoes) macaroni and cheese, dressing, green beans and Subu's Mexican chicken. This seems like a pretty conservative and modest Thanksgiving meal, but you need to consider the fact that I am working with a toaster oven. Yes, I don't actually have a real oven, just an easy bake that's pretending to be one.

This is what I have to work with. I'm not complaining, in fact I'm very THANKful (like that?) I even have a toaster oven.

Peeling potatoes.

The food turned out better than I anticipated, meaning it was edible, and it actually felt like Thanksgiving.

Helping myself to some macaroni and cheese and to the right is dressing.

Let's eat!

After dinner, Gordon and I played a game of scrabble and set up our Christmas decorations. Gordon was hesitant to put up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving was even over, but I didn't want Christmas to sneak up on us. It took us a whole 5 minutes to finish (we don't have many Christmas decorations).

Scrabble time.

Gordon "fluffing" the tree. Its going to be a Charlie Brown Christmas ya'll.

Gordon being a ham. He decided to add his special touch and throw the last two ribbons on the tree and declare Christmas decorating "Done!"

The finished product. Gordon told me it was probably not a good idea to light the Christmas tree candles underneath the tree... thank you for the advice. (Notice the beautiful Thanksgiving card from our friends back home, the Hogues).

This was our Thanksgiving Day surprise, a box full of goodies  from Gordon's parents!