Starting this blog over, hopefully: Thanksgiving!

I got down here to Chile just over a year ago - Nov 21st, and sort of assumed we wouldn't do anything for Thanksgiving because:

1) We were in Chile
2) I interviewed for my current job on Thanksgiving afternoon
3) In 2006 I was in Bolivia for Thanksgiving, traveling with a bunch of English guys, and they went out to a little restaurant with me so I wouldn't be depressed - I figured it would be along those lines again.
3) Are there even turkeys in Chile? (turns out there are)

Fairly last minute, Anita's grandmother heard that Día del Pavo was coming and she took the initiative to get a turkey roasted, I threw together some bean casserole, mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie, and a number of Anita's family members showed up to partake. Success!

This year we decided to organize a bit better: I started preparing days in advance since I had to work on Thanksgiving, and we managed to get it off without a hitch! Unfortunately not many good pics though, forgot to do that.

The "low fat" menu:
-15ish pound turkey, unfortunately done 2 hours before everything else was ready. It turns out though that a couple of towels and some newspaper keep the turkey as warm as an oven would without drying it out!
-Caramelized carrots (w/butter, rum, brown sugar)
-Scalloped potatoes (w/gruyere cheese, butter, pepper, nutmeg and a little half and half)
-Roasted beets (w/butter)
-Steamed broccoli
-Pumpkin cheesecake
-Pecan Pie (w/walnuts since there aren't pecans here)
-Real whipped cream

(A number of the attendees...fuzzy)

20 people including 2 babies and 2 little kids were in attendance, meaning 16 people could actually eat, and no one left hungry. I had a lot of help slicing and dicing veggies from the lady that works at Anita's parents' house, Toñita, and without her it wouldn't have happened.

Elisa finishing off some broccoli and beets
The aftermath

Everyone said it was delicious, and I know they weren't just saying that because when they arrived they told me they had an ambulance on speed dial "por si acaso" (just in case).
Not bad for being 5000 miles from home!