The reason that my post is late this week actually has to do with my topic.

You see, I had my Thanksgiving festivities on Friday as opposed to the actual holiday on Thursday, so yesterday I was still dealing with the cleanup, and I just forgot.

It kind of annoyed me to have to do it on Friday, actually. I mean, don't get me wrong: I definitely enjoyed cooking all day (from noon to 8:00 I was in the kitchen in pure, unadulterated, Thanksgiving bliss). But I wanted to do Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. And more than that, I wanted it to be at home, with my family.

So many things change when you live in a foreign country, and one is not being able to go home for the holidays. I always make it home at Christmas, but Thanksgiving and Easter are always done here. I invite my friends, we eat, we drink... but somehow it's not the same.

I love being the one who makes my whole Thanksgiving, who orchestrates the whole thing, but there are big things I miss about being home. I really miss hearing my mom call the turkey "The Bird" and taking care of it as if it were her child. I really miss having twenty or thirty people roaming around my house in the hours before, thinking about what is to come. I miss being around my family, talking to uncles and aunts and cousins I haven't seen in months.

Maybe someday I'll get used to my Thanksgiving tradition: ordering pre-roasted chickens because my oven isn't big enough for a turkey, having friends show up with bottles of wine and champagne, sitting on the floor and eating off our knees in my living room. I honestly wish I could have both: I love my dinner parties, where I'm in control, but I miss my mom's Thanksgiving still, and I wish I could have that too.