Saturday, December 3, 2011

American Thanksgiving with a Romanian Flair


 
"We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessings..."  Last Saturday the Americans of Project Ruth (Ralph, Anna Holladay, Brittany Garton, and me) hosted a traditional Thanksgiving meal for our Romanian friends.  I began by telling the story of the pilgrims coming to the New World in 1620 and what a hard winter it was.  The Native American Indians helped them greatly by showing them how to adapt to their new surroundings.  I compared this to how our Romanian friends had done the same thing for us.  We came to a new place and they helped us to settle in, teaching us about their language and culture.  This was our way of saying thank you just as they did many years ago.  Although I doubt they had sweet potato casserole and pumpkin roll! 

We had all the traditional foods thanks to many hours of scouring the Bucharest stores and to Rick Landon hauling over a few items in his suitcase in October.  (Thank you again, Rick!) (Yes, we had to start thinking about it that early!)  We had activities for the kids - pasta necklace making, pilgrims on spoons, and coloring pages.  After unbuttoning our pants, another traditional activity, we spent the afternoon enjoying each other's company.  As our guests departed we presented each with a candy cane explaining in our culture the end of the Thanksgiving celebration signals the beginning of Christmas.  "Joy to the World..."

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