Celebrating Thanksgiving Without Family or Familiar Surroundings

"RoastTurkey" by Photo by M. Rehemtulla

Last November was my first Thanksgiving away from Pittsburgh in a long while. I grew up with large Thanksgiving dinners, with extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, friends of the family and, in the later years, my parents' international students and my own friends from other countries. As people started either moving to other parts of the country or passing away I was afraid that this feeling of "home" would disappear.

I was wrong.

I wasn't sure what to expect, being in Baltimore and far away from longtime friends. I was prepared to hunker down and try to get a lot of work done and pretty much ignore the holiday. What happened instead were two Thanksgiving celebrations I'll never forget.

The first was at the Seminary on Thanksgiving day, where two priests from the Philippines, with amazing culinary skills, prepared a multi-course meal that included goat, cantaloupe wrapped in thinly sliced lean meat, cheese from around the world and Filipino dishes. One gourmet dish followed another so that by the time the whole thing was over my stomach was painfully, but deliciously full. In addition to the food, the thing that made this meal memorable was the company and conversation with three priests from Zambia, a Jesuit from the United States, another seminarian from Pittsburgh in addition to the two priests from the Philippines.

The second meal was a traditional African American Thanksgiving dinner and party on Saturday night with a family in the city of Baltimore, which began in the early evening and ended in the wee hours of the morning. The food was a combination of mainstream American dishes, such as turkey, African American Soul Food, such as greens and black-eyed peas, and Maryland dishes, such as raw oysters, clams and crab dip.

There were extended family members of all ages, which reminded me of holiday dinners I grew up with. As usual, the kids, initially very shy, came alive when it was time to show off their dance moves.

As many of you know I haven't watched television in decades unless it happens to be on when I am visiting someone, so I am nearly clueless when it comes to the shows people are watching. Saturday evening "Empire" was on, just as the dinner party was getting started. I said that I had never seen the show and, not missing an opening, the host said, "See, that's because you from Pittsburgh."

Without missing a beat I said, "I know, right? Because in Pittsburgh we don't have to watch Empire 'cause we are Empire." After that I couldn't get anymore crab dip -- J/K.

The bottom line is this: hospitality is everywhere, even when you are far away from home.