A German Thanksgiving
Despite the expected challenges of recreating an American holiday while in Germany, I’d declare this Thanksgiving a success!
The choice of Frankfurt as our location for this holiday was intentional because Ben has a Bosnian friend living there who had helped him create a proper Thanksgiving dinner over 15 years ago when he was living in Bosnia. The opportunity to have Thanksgiving Dinner 2.0 with her and her German husband was something Ben was very excited about and we were all game for.
Not feeling comfortable hosting all of us in their home during COVID, we set out to find an Airbnb that had a good kitchen and large enough table to comfortably fit all 9 of us.
We found a fantastic place in a small village about 30 mins outside of Frankfort named Offenthal for our stay. Ben’s friend Jasminka (“Ya-za” for short) preordered a farm fresh turkey for us from the local butcher, which we picked up when we arrived Wednesday night. The turkey was about 17lbs (more than enough for the 9 of us) and cost about 94 euros ($106.00 dollars)! Clearly, they don’t get a lot of requests for turkeys. Luckily, a small grocery store on block from our place had just the right mix of ingredients for us to create a full Thanksgiving feast.
Before starting our day of cooking, a group of us (everyone by my dad) set out on a 5K run (our own self-made Turkey Trot). The run from our village to the next and back took us along large farm fields, narrow streets, and picturesque homes and shops. The locals we ran by all looked at us with piqued interest. I’m sure they were wondering what three adults and three children were doing running through their small village mid-morning on a Thursday.
When we returned to our townhome, we started preparations for our feast. Everyone pitched in and contributed to making one of the most delicious Thanksgiving meals I’ve every had. From the Turkey (named Wilber by the kids), homemade stuffing, masked potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, broccoli, salad, and store bought rolls and cranberry sauce to the desserts made by Sophia and Ava (brownies with raspberry sauce and Apple-Lemon Cake), each dish was made with love and had incredible flavor. In between cooking, we made calls to Gammy and our family back in the US, played cards and backgammon, and even did a bit of dancing.
Yaza and her husband Alex arrived around 6:30pm with delicious cocktails and a bag of traditional German sweets in tow. Having only ever seen it represented in movies or on TV, this was Alex’s first Thanksgiving dinner. Not only did he leave full, but he and Yaza took home many leftovers too.
While we had hoped to stay in our Airbnb for three nights and four days, it was double booked for Friday. So, after a HUGE breakfast of leftovers, we transferred to the fun and eclectic Moxy Hotel in downtown Frankfort for a day of exploring the city before leaving the next day for Luxembourg.
