To friends...

The green bean casserole has been in the fridge since last night, my first made-from-scratch pie crust is blind-baking for my nutmeg-maple cream tart, and all the ingredients for the andouille-cornbread stuffing have been chopped. We'll be off to Rick and Emilee's in a couple of hours where deep-fried turkey and prime-rib and all sorts of delicious coma-inducing carbs await. I love Thanksgiving :)

Thanksgiving's my favorite U.S. holiday. Not only because it's just one huge excuse to cook and eating masquerading as a national holiday, but because I associate it solidly with our experience here and here alone. It has no connection to home and all the emotions that comes with missing family. Christmas is always hard for me here because it makes me sad that I'm not back home. And that's saying a lot because Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. But because I've only known Thanksgiving in the U.S.-- and we've always had the good fortune of sharing it with the best of friends-- I enjoy it with no wistfulness nor yearning.

So this Thanksgiving, we want to give thanks to all the friends we've ever spent Thanksgiving with in Ann Arbor, whether it's Jude's MSI classmates in 2003 and 2004, my friend, Julie, who so generously invited me to her family's Thanksgiving in 2005 when Jude wasn't around, and for the last 3 years, Rick and Emilee with their deliriously awesome fried turkeys. Thank you, guys, for making our Thanksgivings here always something to look forward to every year! :)