The Bond Street Journal: Thanksgiving Day (with a new tradition!)

This year was our first Thanksgiving in India. And it was not spent with our family like many other americans do.

We explained to our friends and language helpers about the "first thanksgiving". They were interested in such a uniquely American holiday (trying to explain why we once called Native Americans, Indians was confusing). But they had an even harder idea for exactly a turkey was (we said it was like an ugly peacock).

We looked all over Delhi for a turkey to cook in our new oven. But we could not find one. So we had to settle for few chickens

But we mostly spent the holiday with our American friends. All the families brought some really good foods (that are extremely hard to make here). They were all great! Thanks especially to the ladies! We cooked and cut up the chickens and sat down to enjoy a tasty meal. We enjoyed what we could of it. Since we did not have any family members nearby, we spent as much time chasing down our kids and disciplining them as we did talking about what we were thankful for.

Then we began a "new" tradition. One of our friends has a family tradition of making gingerbread houses. This was difficult because there is no place to buy graham crackers here. So she made it and brought all the items to make our houses. It was a fun task.

Which one do you like most?

Can you tell which one is ours?

This one our friends made with their son, it is a trailer with a helicopter pad (and helicopter) on top.

This one is the "Indian" gingerbread house. It has a large terrace and a night guard. It also has a small top room for rent. According to its owner, the renter is stealing electricity and the satellite signal. They also have trash spread over the property.