An early Thankgiving celebration

Our church in Oslo had a Thanksgiving Celebration both to celebrate Thanksgiving in a few weeks and to celebrate the one year anniversary of the church. Our congregation is international with a large number of Filipino au pairs who also celebrate Thanksgiving (taken from the US influence) so we had an interesting assortment of traditional Thanksgiving food from the US and the Philippines.

We prepared a Turkey. This is the first time I have cooked a turkey in the oven. Usually for the holidays we are eating at a parent or grandparents house and they cook the turkey. The only time we did it, we used a turkey fryer which was not to be found in Oslo. So, I was a little nervous. I also did not have the right supplies. There was no roasting dish and no turkey baster. So, we were inventive as you see in the picture and we used Katherine's nasal aspirator as a turkey baster.
Eeeew - just joking. We laughed about the idea and posed the picture but decided to just use the spoon to baste the turkey.

Katherine grabbed an oven mitt to check the turkey. Good thing that oven is childproofed because even though she kept saying, "hot, hot", she still tried to open the door like mommy does.

In addition to the turkey, we made cranberries, gravy and sweet potato casserole. As you can see our kitchen is very small and tight on space. I think we had every pot and pan as well as all four burners in use. It seemed I was constantly cleaning up.

The food was delicious. We had turkey and all the sides - mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, broccoli, etc. This is in addition to the Filipino spring rolls, shrimp, pasta and rice dishes. The hands down hit and most commented on dish was the sweet potato casserole. Apparently sweet potatoes are not common here so most of the Norwegian and European guests had no idea what it was. They thought it was carrots. Then to cover it in marshmallows was an even more interesting idea. They all liked it though.

We had the regular attenders from our church family as well as many guests in attendance. It was a very fun evening for me as almost every friend I have made in Oslo was there. Sarah, her husband John and son Aiden were there, Hilde, her son Nikolas and granddaughter Lona attended and Donna, husband Stew and daughters Sophie and Isabella came. They all really enjoyed the evening and it felt a little like a going away party for me as it may be the last time I see all of these friends before we go home.

Lucky (our pastor) gave a short devotional on the history and meaning of Thanksgiving. The kids did a craft.

Katherine and her two best friends in Olso - Nikolas and Aiden