Francegiving

This year I celebrated my third Thanksgiving away from my family and country. It was also the second Thanksgiving in a row that I was abroad and away from real turkey and cranberry sauce, so I'm fairly used to accepting the fact that sometimes you just have to let go of your traditions and know you will have another "real" holiday someday.

But, this time, we decided to say "no way France, we are having our Thanksgiving!"

Chelsea and I scoured all of the grocery stores in Valenciennes, went MacGyver on poultry and cooked up an awesome Thanksgiving dinner for Chelsea's French family, the Bisiaux family.

And I must say, it was a huge success. I concocted, from scratch, the best-ever green bean casserole, Chelsea made her grandmother's southern dressing (kind of like stuffing) and her family's coca-cola salad (sounds crazy, I know, but it was delicious and served as a perfect substitute to our missing cranberry sauce). We found smoked chickens to be the turkey replacements, and add a bunch of French wines and aperitifs, and you get the best Francegiving one could have.

The night was perfect, and as we streamed a recording of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we almost felt like we were home.

Check out these pics of our feast! I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and am so grateful to have you in my life!