Twas the night before turkey...

Thanksgiving Eve here in Scotland, and while sadly there are no evening shenanigans planned for the biggest bar night of the year like there would be in the States, there is, more importantly, an uncrowded and calm grocery store.

This is one of the big pros of celebrating the holiday expatriately: you don't need to resort to throwing elbows or pulling hair the day before in order to get a bag of cranberries. And if you need something tomorrow at the last minute? Everything is still open as normal, and you don't have to resort to going to 7-11, cleaning the place out of Big Bites, then removing the hot dogs so you can have the "rolls" you forgot to buy the day before, but promised to bring to dinner.

But everything being open and normal because there isn't Thanksgiving here? It's also a con. Said bag of cranberries? Doesn't seem to exist. At least not at the Maryhill Tesco. Which makes baking a pear-cranberry pie a bit challenge. Same with canned pumpkin. There is none! Last year, Lupe Pinto's, the "American" store in town, sold out of canned pumpkin at the beginning of fall. So me trying to snag some the day before is unlikely, and very unworth a 3.5 mile round trip in the miserable weather. So I have to improvise on the pie front.

I actually have to say though, I really like Thanksgiving abroad. There's something really special about celebrating with other Americans when you're all away from home. Corny, yes. But really nice at the same time. Plus, I appreciate the irony of having Thanksgiving in the UK!