Thanksgiving in Korea

While I usually assume the holidays are going to be a sad time to be away from home, this Thanksgiving was one of my best yet.  Naturally, I missed my family and our big family dinners at my grandparents' house.  But, I got to skype with my mom and the McBrides after their feast.

Thanksgiving this year went something like this:

Friday night: The plan is to cook.  Friends ccome to town from all over Korea.  It is a joyful reunion.  We go to the supermarket to get ingredients.  We stock up on veggies, potatoes, milk, pounds of butter, pounds of cheese, etc.  MJ shows up with 6 bottles of wine.  Matt breaks out a bottle of whiskey.  No cooking gets done.

Saturday morning:  We wake up and get to work on the food.  Matt peels and mashes 24 potatoes downstairs.  Upstairs in Scott's apartment, we have one oven.  Jerusha makes a sweet potato and spinach gratin covered in cheese.  I make two trays of the mac and cheese, clearly smothered in cheese- that Massey proceeds to fry.  Andrew K makes a green been casserole with the french's fried onions that his mom sent from the USA.. we then covered that in cheese.  Needless to say, it's thanksgiving, and we're going all out. 

In the afternoon, we head to the pension to meet our friends.   In case you're unfamiliar with a pension, it's basically just part of a house or apartment.. it usually has basic kitchen supplies and bedding for everyone to sleep on the floor.  It's perfect for get-togethers like these. There are about 20 people coming up to Cheorwon for the Thanksgiving festivities.

Carla makes mojitos (a rarity here in Korea)

the boys goofing around

Apples to Apples before dinner

We spend a few hours playing apples to apples and watching football before our friends arrive.  When everyone is there, we go around in a circle and give thanks- and then the feast begins!  Along with the things we brought, there was stuffing, cornbread, honey glazed carrots, homemade hummus, pumpkin dip and ginger snaps, roasted veggies, more greenbean casserole, home-made cranberry sauce, fresh baked bread, pumpkin pie, apple pie, fresh whipped cream, and real butter.

around in a circle, giving thanks

Carla does work on the turkey

Matt makes gravy

Carla makes a plate- look at all that goodness

Everyone enjoying their meals

The feast!

After dinner, everyone is in a food coma.  We spend the rest of the night playing scrabble, having a sing-a-long with the guitar/piano, and of course- having a dance party.

food coma

Lisa's solo of the Little Mermaid soundtrack

singing

scrabble

makgeoli bottle microphone.. nice

bailey's

leftovers, of course

baileys shots in chocolate covered strawberries

limbo

And like I said, this was in a pension with about 20 people, so here was one of the rooms the next morning:

cozy!

So all in all, it was a fantastic holiday.  Everyone really went all out on the food and a good time was had by all.   With friends like these, it really makes being away from home not so bad.  Happy Thanksgiving!