Pumpkins, pies and yams: My first Canadian Thanksgiving

Most of us are familiar with Thanksgiving in the United States. Everyone has a day off work at the end of November to give thanks to the Native Americans for looking after the Pilgrims when they first arrived in New England. Ironic? Yes. Celebrated in Canada? No.  Canadian Thanksgiving is totally unrelated to US Thanksgiving, and history suggests it pre-dates its American counterpart.  In Canada, Thanksgiving takes place on the second Monday in October, and is more of a glorified harvest festival than a colonial tradition. Everybody still gets a day off work (well, all of the Central and Western provinces) but the focus remains very much on the food. And food there is a-plenty.

Traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Yum.

The Thanksgiving menu is very similar (alright, basically the same) in both countries: turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, yams (otherwise known as sweet potatoes), vegetables and the infamous pumpkin pie. For our first Thanksgiving in Canada, we decided to cook a small yet civilized meal for us and a friend and make the most of our new kitchen. Rather than roast an entire turkey for three people, we went for turkey breasts instead. We stuffed each one with garlic, mushroom and cranberries, covered them with prosciutto ham, roasted them until tender and served the skin separately on top. Our vegetables consisted of broccoli and cauliflower with bacon sprinkles, accompanied by a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash. All covered in gravy, of course.

Lucky Number 3: Downtown Living

Today’s blog post is slightly momentous (aren’t they all?) as I’m writing it from the living room of apartment number three. Last week we packed up our worldly goods for the fourth time in 10 months and moved across the bridge to Downtown Vancouver.  It turns out I’m building quite the collection of ‘stuff’ as our belongings have gone from filling three suitcases to filling a Ford Escape SUV. With the seats down. This, however, is of little importance to me because we have a walk in closet and a storage locker in the basement, which means I’m allowed to collect all the rubbish I like. So there.

The living room...

Anyway, on with the apartment itself. So we’re living in the heart of Downtown, just around the corner from the main intersection of Robson and Burrard. We’re on the top floor of a seven storey building, and we have a balcony that looks out at a number of apartment buildings and offices. We’re less than a minute’s walk from a supermarket, a Starbucks, a pub and a Cineplex, and we can see into our gym from the living room (now that’s motivation). Most importantly, we’re less than three blocks from the SkyTrain station, which means our office move at the end of the month will slash my morning commute to approximately fifteen minutes. Oh yes.

Back the other way...

The apartment itself is really, really lovely.  Although I’m going to miss living in our beloved beachside community of Kits, I won’t miss old buildings with water issues and broken elevators. Our new building isn’t super new, but the apartment is very recently refurbished with a brand new kitchen and bathroom. The last lick of paint went on the ceiling the day we moved in, and it’s so exciting to be living in a new and modern environment. It’s a one bedroom, but the open plan living/kitchen area means that it still feels spacious, and it’s great to finally have a dining table with actual chairs!