I am thankful for having my own kitchen

Have you ever seen this color on thanksgiving before?Ever since I can remember eating I have always looked forward to Thanksgiving. For reasons I have never really been able to explain I have always been drawn to the massive amounts of seasonal foods, hoards of disgruntled family members, and the fact that on this one day it is perfectly acceptable to do absolutely nothing. I have always held this holiday in very high regards, but I never really realized why I find it such a crucial part of the holiday season until I wasn’t at home to experience it.
In an effort to make us feel more at home on the holiday in Buenos Aires, the NYU staff decided to organize a big Thanksgiving dinner party at the academic center. Even though they asked us for specific advice about recipes, organized caterers to cook for us and decorated the center with the traditional autumn hues (which was actually the most impressive part, considering it is summer right now), it still did not feel much like thanksgiving. Granted I was in a foreign country without family and it was about 50 degrees hotter than any thanksgiving I have ever been a part of, there was something else the day way missing.
At this point I was also very skeptical of what the Argentine interpretation of this American holiday would entail. I decided to cook some of my favorite sides just in case they tried to serve ham, balsamic vinaigrette, mayonnaise, or any other obscure ingredients Argentines seem to inappropriately incorporate into all the food down here. I made mashed potatoes, stuffing and an apple crisp, and almost as soon as I started prepping the ingredients it began to feel more like thanksgiving again. I spent the afternoon cooking and entertaining some close friends from the program who stopped by to help. Some of them helped me in the kitchen, some just lingered around to volunteer their mouths for taste testing, and the one guy of the bunch spent a significant amount of time trying to find American football on TV. All of the sudden, even though I was still not with family or at home, it finally felt like a warm and homey thanksgiving evening but I couldn’t figure out exactly why.
Once the food was ready we took it to school to contribute to the feast, which included gravy that was really BBQ sauce, French fries instead of mashed potatoes and some sort of bright red mystery quiche. When I arrived the NYU staff was very perplexed as to why I would go through the trouble of cooking since they had already provided food. It was not until then, when I had to explain why I wanted to cook in addition to the catering, that I understood why thanksgiving is truly unique.
Thanksgiving is not just about eating turkey or being around family, but what is more important is preparation that goes into it, the dinner is just a result. The act of being in the kitchen preparing and fostering each dish, spending time with people you care about (family or not) just to be together, fighting over the remote to switch between the Macy’s Day Parade and one of a dozen football games, pretending to help cook while really just sitting in the kitchen to sneak bites of stuffing behind the chef’s back, and enjoying the fact that dinner is the only thing that has to be done on that day are the crucial aspects that make thanksgiving worth celebrating.