Bringing Thanksgiving to France... Southern Style

I thought the above three pictures capture each of the kiddies personalities so well... Emily is such a ham (how appropriate) with her silly facial expressions, Sophia with her disgusted look while examining a wilting leaf and Joshua just all wild and crazy even while snapping beans.

I know.. I know.. enough already with the bean snapping, right? I just think they are so adorable.. the kids not the beans.

The "ham".

The feast!

Tonight we celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends and fellow expatriates from Greenville. We combined efforts and prepared a feast comprised of oodles of southern yummyness... a nice taste of home. Turkey, ham (eerrr... I mean, pork), mashed potatoes, gravy, rice, green beans, broccoli casserole, dressing, sweet potato souffle, macaroni and cheese, cornbread (Jiffy, to be exact!), rolls and sweet iced tea. The dinner culminated with delicious pumpkin pie and apple cake served with a side of coffee.

Finding a "ham", in the American holiday sense, proved to be quite the challenge here in France. Honestly, I had never thought exactly what a "ham" is other than it comes from a pig. You ask for "ham" here (ie jambon) and you are directed to the cold cuts. I completely took it for granted that in the States you could go into your local Bilo or Publix... ask the butcher for a "ham"... and you get the nicely packaged and pre-cooked hunk of meat we all love and adore. There are many different parts to a pig and, evidently, they serve different purposes when it comes to cooking. Kim and I went to a local grocery store this past week and after agonizing (yet quite amusing) minutes of sign language, hand gestures, incorrect verbs and nouns and ham descriptions we thought we had success and actually ordered a "ham" (picture with me the pretty Honey Baked Glazed Ham with cute little diamonds studded with cloves and pineapple). I left there with that nagging feeling that we just placed an order for pigs feet.

Yesterday, on the day we were to pick up our ordered "ham", the entire family trekked out to the store. Again, I clumsily attempt to explain that I had ordered a "ham" on Monday, yada yada yada, and get the blank stare and stifled giggles. I just want a ham... please, s'il vous plait, give me a "ham". No ham for you. I did, however, get handed a gigantic 13lb pork shoulder (I think?) which after baking for 4 hours I realized, this ain't no ham. So, I did what anyone would do 3 hours before the big debut (did I tell you this was my FIRST Thanksgiving dinner?) and I made lemonade out of lemons. Crockpot meet pork shoulder which should have been a "ham". Whipped up some apricot honey glaze and, voila, pulled pork for Thanksgiving. It turned out even more southern than planned.

Gotta love the kid table.

Ready to eat!

This picture is related to this post because the photos on the wall were put up after the meal and the talented photographer who took those photos is Kim Cabe - the lady in the photo above. And, I just like it and wanted to share! :) Love love love that the space is now filled with beautiful pictures of three of the most precious people to me.