Thanksgiving Abu Dhabi, part I and II

This Thanksgiving weekend held a bunch of firsts: first traditional feast for Teni from Trinidad, first sweet potato and marshmallow experience for K (who loved it and demanded the recipe--score one for American comfort food), and the first time cooking more than soup in Abu Dhabi for me (roasted carrots from the family cookbook!). We actually went to two different feasts with different vibes--Thanksgiving #1: International Turkey Day , and Thanksgiving #2: Midwest meets the Middle East.

Thanksgiving #1 took place at the apartment of Madame L, our closest homie and Arabic teacher. She has friends visiting from the States, and invited us to a quiet dinner and game night with them, her husband (a fellow Californian) and a neighbor or two. Imagine our surprise when we got there to find at least 15 people from our school, her husband's school and half their building. But what else is Thanksgiving for? We had one representative from Massachusetts, but almost everyone else came from distinctly non-Pilgrim environments: Romania, China, Canada, Alaska, Poland, Morocco, Trinidad, Dominican Republic and France. People dressed up and stood around drinking red wine, discussing travel, work and politics, and admiring the view of the city from the ninth floor apartment. Although Madame L's husband lovingly prepared all the classics, the crowd treated it as a buffet, though there was some exclaiming over the pumpkin pie. (L-R: Teni, me, K, Madame L, and her two visitors)

Thanksgiving #2 happened today among the teachers in our apartment building. We were in charge of bringing a hot veggie dish and rolls. The rolls we bought at the grocery store, along with a Dutch oven, Pyrex glass dish, three pounds of baby carrots, 30 cloves of garlic and two lemons. The roasted carrot dish in the family cookbook is super simple and super good. It felt like Thanksgiving-meme, cooking and chopping (I even wore an apron), then taking a covered dish and two plates of rolls upstairs to where our building mates had gathered. M's (music teacher at school) parents are visiting from Kansas and they had spent the day baking pies from scratch (having imported Karo syrup, pumpkin puree and marshmallows on behalf of the woman who brought K's new favorite dish). Others brought green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, salad and homemade cranberry sauce. Someone went around with a video camera asking everyone what they were most thankful for. We gathered in the livingroom where our hosts had pushed the table against the coffee table and cobbled together enough chairs to give everyone a seat at one long, but multi-level table. It was crowded and loud and totally Thanksgiving. I had one of those ex-pat moments (very briefly) where I missed home because I felt at home so far away from home. It didn't last long because someone passed the pumpkin pie, and it was time for dessert.