Swiss Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year.

As this is our first Thanksgiving ever away from America, we (especially me believe it or not...) were worried about how we would feel if we could not celebrate according to tradition.
A week before the holiday when we were shopping in France we saw this at the grocery store...
The turkeys are the size of rather large roaster chickens... not like our American butterballs...

 And if you want pumpkin pie this is what you need to start with... no canned pumpkin here...

Frotunately my American friends from work, Miranda and Mark, decided to host a big dinner for everyone from our little company and it turned out amazing.
Almost 40 people showed up, only 5 or so of them were Americans, the others Brits, French, Germans etc... The food was DELICIOUS and 100% real and traditional. Miranda did an incredible job with all the Thanksgiving sides and Mark cooked the perfect turkey. We ate SO MUCH as you're supposed to, went for seconds and had a fantastic time overall. Here are some pics.
Salad with pecans...

All the meats: turkey for us and then emergency veal and lamb chops for the Euros in case they did not like the bird...

 Green bean casserote, mashed potatoes, delicious stuffing...

 Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top  (Miranda is from Detroit and that's how it's done in the Midwest... When I lived in Iowa that's how we did sweet potatoes...)

 Cranberries, both kinds, in their fresh from the can ripply glory...

 Pumpkin pie...

 And my glorious (first) plate! Yummy

 CJ plate and note what he got to enjoy for drink!! Yes, a Sam Adams!

 Yummy...

 My French co-workers clearly enjoying the turkey... no worries there...

 Me and my girlfriends, from the left: me, Mirian (Spain), Anfissa (Kazakhstan), and Miranda (USA)...

 Everyone enjoying dinner...

 We made all the Brits put on Pilgrim hats and bonnets... Too funny!!

 More pilgrim hats, this time international edition... Tall guy is Lee from England, then Mark (our host) in a bonnet, Miranda, and Olivier (French) in a bonnet...

What a fantastic party! And all the time in the background the Lions / Packers was playing on tv. It just made my day to get every bit of the real Thanksgiving even though we were so far away!