Our friend Nancy came for a week-long visit and helped me cook my first turkey. We bought a frozen turkey on Friday night for our Saturday night Thanksgiving party for 25. (This was completely my fault, by the way.) Tyler and I spent the entire night taking turns getting up every hour to change the water in the cold-water bath the turkey had to take so it would thaw by morning. Groggy and blurry eyed, we both shuffled into the kitchen the next morning and proclaim that we are never having kids.
Our turkey, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie all turned out perfectly. Miriam made everything else and we all enjoyed a full, traditional American Thanksgiving Meal and leftovers (including a huge batch of turkey soup) for days. We loved having Nancy here to celebrate with us and it was fun to treat Germans to their first turkey.
Thanksgiving Day, Tyler and I went to a spa town about 2 hours away called Baden-Baden. While we really did miss family, I have to say this was hands-down the most relaxing way to spend a holiday. We didn’t lift a finger in the kitchen or wash a single dish. We spent the day in baths (hot tubs with and without bubbles, cold tubs, warm tubs, whirlpools, swimming pools, etc.), saunas, steam rooms, heated chairs and getting a massage. It’s a bit like Harrison Hotsprings on steroids. Then we went out to a very nice dinner and walked back to our hotel all bundled up, through the leaves and along the river. We had a great Thanksgiving, just the two of us.
