When you live, well, not, in the USA, celebrating Thanksgiving can be awkward and downright depressing. The first Thanksgiving abroad is the worst: you haven’t adopted new traditions yet and the old ones just don’t work. But most people try to force it anyway.

The only way around this is to have a big neighbor potluck on your roof. Under a palm frond roof. Watching the sunset. With christmas lights.

The little kids

One of the husbands in our building worked really hard building the tiki hut type shelter

And so, our wonderful Arab Thanksgiving Feast was saved. There was a wonderful potluck spread. Everyone really did work so hard to make their very favorite and best dish. Some of my favorites included fried mac and cheese, mac and cheese from scratch, and deviled eggs.

This next Thanksgiving (our first in the USA in seven years), we will really miss the warm sunset dinner.