Coconut Rice is traditional at Thanksgiving, right?

I feel very conflicted when I think about spending Thanksgiving in Ecuador.  It's almost bitter-sweet.  My mom set up her computer next to the dinner table at home so that I could electronically eat with them.  It's wonderful that I get to see my entire family and even more wonderful that I get to share this experience with them in someway, but it's not really the same.  Not being able to be physically near them is really difficult.  But I hung out with everyone on the computer while they were cooking and eating hors d'oeuvres.  Harry and I always have really enlightening dirty Spanish conversations when we're on skype; these conversations I truly look forward to most.  I also got to see Maxwell in all his adorable glory! I'm so grateful that I get to see him pretty regularly and that I'm not really missing all of his infancy.  My family has been very good about keeping me up to date on his life and new developments.  

I guess that it's truly bitter-sweet because I can't be with my real family, but I get to be with my new family, my family of friends from Ecuador. However, this experience feels a bit more bitter for me right now because I'm feeling rather under-the-weather and therefore am feeling restless because I can't do anything else but meditate on my absence from my real family's Thanksgiving.

So last night we had a Thanksgiving feast at Melisa's host-family's house.  It was the first time my host mom (Sandra) had ever had a Thanksgiving meal so we all did our best to make it as American as possible.  Needless to say we completely failed.  It was the most Ecuadorian Thanksgiving I could possibly imagine.  But Thanksgiving isn't really about the same old routine food, it's about being with the people that you care about, to be loving and kind and grateful to those people. The problem with imitating American Thanksgiving feasts is that we have completely different ingredients here. We did the best we could though.

Melisa's host family (Lucy, Dani, Valeria, Tio y Abuelita), my host family (Sandra y Rafa), Lee and Mark all showed up for the wonderful meal.  We even played the Thanksgiving game (thought you might like this mom!) So for an entrada Sandra made these little Mushroom torts, the we had greenbean casserole (which I made completely from scratch (homemade mushroom soup and french friend onions)), mashed potatoes (thanks Lee!), Turkey with mango or manzana sauce, coconut rice, pasas moradas (the raisin equivalent of cranberry sauce), this corn-pineapple-strawberry combo dish, and for desert flan with honey.  Needless to say, very ecuadorian, but very wonderful to be surrounded by some of the most important people in my Ecuadorian life.  Unfortunately but fortunately, Katie's Mom and sister flew down from Boston yesterday so they couldn't attend dinner do to time conflicts. We thought about her a lot though!

So tomorrow night I have another Thanksgiving to attend with my friends at Lucho's family Hacienda in Nono.  More details to come on that disaster!  This time Katie and her family will be there so it'll be more genuinely familial for me!