My Thanksgiving dinner

As you guys know, Thanksgiving is an American holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Well, I had never celebrated Thanksgiving "properly"... Until this year!

My friend Mariona, who lived in the USA for 10 years, invited me to her place to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. Even though they settled down back in Catalonia 5 years ago, Mariona's family keeps celebrating for the family gathering... And the food! :B I feel so glad I had the chance to share this experience with a friend like her! However, since Thursday wasn't a free day for us here in Spain, we had to celebrate it on Sunday. 

I arrived to Tivissa (Tarragona province, where Mariona's family lives) on Saturday afternoon. When I arrived, everyone was preparing the meal for the next day (actually they had been preparing it for days already!). The kitchen smelled like heaven! We would be 20 of us on Sunday, so there was plenty of work to do. We had dinner, we played with Mariona's pets (Papi the cat and Rita the dog) and we watched movies and series until bedtime.

The next day we woke up and we helped the family set the table. While we waited for the guests to come over, I took some pictures of Mariona's cat and dog. I have to say these two cuties stole my heart from the very first moment... :') I've always been an animal lover but my parents never let me have a pet when I was a kid (apart from hamsters and fishes, LOL). So being with a cat AND a dog was completely new to me!

...Plus I like taking photos of animals :B

Papi is still a young and super active cat! He's never gonna get tired of playing before you do!

Rita is such an adorable, nervous and very quiet dog. I mean, you can see it in her eyes, right? ^-^ I was petting her all the time!

The table, finally set!

Mariona with Papi

Long cat is loooooooong

Typical IG shot

Part of Mariona's family, ready to gobble up!

The turkey, cut in small chunks already (they're smart!) and the stuffing

Mashed sweet potatoes baked with marshmallows ❤ A very strange but legit combination! Too bad the marshmallows were kind of burnt on top, and they tasted like ember! LOL

My Thanksgiving plate! My ration of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, cranberry sauce and gravy! Whoaaaa....

After the first dish, the pies came! I was almost full, but I couldn't resist to grab some few pieces of foodporn... *Mouthwatering* ❤

Pumpkin pie

Walnut Softcake

Mariona's awesome Pumpkin Cheesecake ❤❤❤ I just could eat two pieces of it, but I would've eaten the whole pie if I had had the chance :B 

My pie dish with the five pies of the day: Regular Cheesecake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Pie, Walnut Softcake and Pecan Pie ❤ I obviously overate that day so I took some leftovers home... Didn't want to leave all these beauties alone, you know!

Before I finish this post, I shall say "Thank You" to Mariona and her family who kindly welcomed and treated me like one of theirs. They were so nice and welcoming that all I can say is, "Thank you" from the bottom of my heart. Hope I have more chances to hang out with Mariona in her place in the future! She's truly a great friend, and despite we started off with the wrong foot when we first met, I'm happy we're very close friends now. Love you, girl! Can't wait to see you again! :)

CL