First Thanksgiving
For international students like me Thanksgiving is a new tradition. There are lots of festivals in India where we go to our relatives place and meet with our extended family. But none of the festivals is specifically for showing gratitude. It's great that in US they have a grand holiday specifically for this. What more is required in life than feeling grateful and happy? Best part is it always happens on Thursday so the families can get together for 4 days.
In West Lafayette, there is a tradition where the local people invite the Purdue students during Thanksgiving and share their joy with us. I and 3 other Purdue students Pulkit Shukla (Indian from my Masters program), Ogechukwu Ezenwa (Nigeria), Kamilah Razak (Malaysia) got invites from a Physician Shannon Oates and her husband Larry Oates. Their 3 daughters Maggie, Caroline, Becky and son Sam and their extended family, friends, and neighbors had graced their house.
Gingerbread house
As per American Christmas tradition, we decorated gingerbread houses. We had lots of fun doing it. For us it was a new experience to stick candies, icing, wafer, pretzels, etc and make nice houses. There were artistic houses built by Caroline Oates (colosseum), Kamilah Razak, and Shannon Oates herself. It was heartwarming to see all family members involved in this activity irrespective of age and making fun of each other in the process and enjoying themselves -especially Caroline with her sarcasm and witty comments made us all enjoy ourselves.
After building our gingerbread houses, they put all the gingerbread houses on display on the road and they voted for each other's houses. They left it on the road so that the neighbors can also vote. I was glad to know that last year also they did the same and a newspaper reporter covered it!
Grand dinner
We had a grand dinner with turkey, beef, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and turnips, sweet potatoes, peas, asparagus, gravy, buttered rolls, wine, etc. Add to this 4 types of Pie - Pumpkin pie, strawberry streusel pie, Pecan and chocolate chips pie, Apple pie - suffice to say we ate to the extent that we have never done before. Shannon was a great host and there was lot of efforts from lot of people including grandma, and Kamilah in cooking all these - hats off!
Musical program
We had a musical program where each of us sang, played musical instruments and had great time. Grandpa Jack read a poem. Shannon's daughters Maggie, Becky and her boyfriend sang songs and played guitar. Kamilah played Saxophone beautifully. It was nice to see everyone entertaining each other with grandma, uncle Jim and cousins Ryan, Helen singing songs too. Ogechukwu Ezenwa recited her story. I sang a tamil song - I am thankful nobody knew how bad it was LOL. We took a group photo at the end. It was a memorable first Thanksgiving indeed.
There was one moment worth mentioning. During the musical program Shannon asked her daughter Maggie to sing “Rivers and roads”(The head and the heart) song. The entire family sang the song and after they finished singing, Maggie and Caroline told us they sang this song when Maggie had to leave home for her college and how they cried and cried at that time. The song has the verses “And my family lives in a different state” and it says that we have to cross rivers and roads to reach you. I am sure when Maggie came for Thanksgiving after she joined college it must have really felt like home for her.
Feeling grateful
What I really liked was this is a great occasion for all family members to get together and talk at length during the lunch and at other activities. We hardly touched our phones. We felt like one of their family members as Caroline, Grandpa Jack, Shannon, Larry and others made us feel at home throughout. I am grateful to all of them. They have inspired me to celebrate like this next year onwards by inviting friends and family at my house for Thanksgiving.
For international students like me Thanksgiving is a new tradition. There are lots of festivals in India where we go to our relatives place and meet with our extended family. But none of the festivals is specifically for showing gratitude. It's great that in US they have a grand holiday specifically for this. What more is required in life than feeling grateful and happy? Best part is it always happens on Thursday so the families can get together for 4 days.
In West Lafayette, there is a tradition where the local people invite the Purdue students during Thanksgiving and share their joy with us. I and 3 other Purdue students Pulkit Shukla (Indian from my Masters program), Ogechukwu Ezenwa (Nigeria), Kamilah Razak (Malaysia) got invites from a Physician Shannon Oates and her husband Larry Oates. Their 3 daughters Maggie, Caroline, Becky and son Sam and their extended family, friends, and neighbors had graced their house.
Gingerbread house
As per American Christmas tradition, we decorated gingerbread houses. We had lots of fun doing it. For us it was a new experience to stick candies, icing, wafer, pretzels, etc and make nice houses. There were artistic houses built by Caroline Oates (colosseum), Kamilah Razak, and Shannon Oates herself. It was heartwarming to see all family members involved in this activity irrespective of age and making fun of each other in the process and enjoying themselves -especially Caroline with her sarcasm and witty comments made us all enjoy ourselves.
Grand dinner
We had a grand dinner with turkey, beef, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and turnips, sweet potatoes, peas, asparagus, gravy, buttered rolls, wine, etc. Add to this 4 types of Pie - Pumpkin pie, strawberry streusel pie, Pecan and chocolate chips pie, Apple pie - suffice to say we ate to the extent that we have never done before. Shannon was a great host and there was lot of efforts from lot of people including grandma, and Kamilah in cooking all these - hats off!
We had a musical program where each of us sang, played musical instruments and had great time. Grandpa Jack read a poem. Shannon's daughters Maggie, Becky and her boyfriend sang songs and played guitar. Kamilah played Saxophone beautifully. It was nice to see everyone entertaining each other with grandma, uncle Jim and cousins Ryan, Helen singing songs too. Ogechukwu Ezenwa recited her story. I sang a tamil song - I am thankful nobody knew how bad it was LOL. We took a group photo at the end. It was a memorable first Thanksgiving indeed.
Feeling grateful
What I really liked was this is a great occasion for all family members to get together and talk at length during the lunch and at other activities. We hardly touched our phones. We felt like one of their family members as Caroline, Grandpa Jack, Shannon, Larry and others made us feel at home throughout. I am grateful to all of them. They have inspired me to celebrate like this next year onwards by inviting friends and family at my house for Thanksgiving.
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