My Evening As A Pilgrim.

The complete lack of the presence of Thanksgiving is the only thing wrong with living abroad.

This was my second Thanksgiving away from home - but my first that was going to be without Thanksgiving dinner.

To some people the whole dinner and being around family may not be all that important. But in my family, it is. We start planning next year's Thanksgiving the moment the last fork-full of pie is gone. The largest celebration to date was around 50 of us. From my late-Grandpa down to second cousin and in-laws, it was a whole family affair and it was wonderful!

Thanksgiving is really of my favorite holidays - shadowed only by Christmas itself really. Because let's face it - no holiday can trump celebrating the birth of baby Jesus. But, Thanksgiving always marks the official start of Christmas in my opinion, and is without a doubt, the best meal of the year.

The rest of the world is pretty thick, if you ask me, to not celebrate it even though it has nothing to do with their country whatsoever. You can still eat the food! As Marie-Antionette would have said, "let them eat turkey!"

So because I am completely new to the city and know not a soul here to partake in Thanksgiving festivities with, these were my options.

A: Denial. Pretend it is not Thanksgiving and attempt to ignore the holiday altogether to avoid sadness.

B: Poverty. Go to a restaurant and pay a 50 GPB prefix for a British version of Thanksgiving, that would likely be nothing like Thanksgiving at all.

C: Optimism. Attend the ex-pat Thanksgiving Potluck at Holy Trinity Brompton - the church I went to this past weekend and loved.

So, walking out of work and realizing that I either had a night alone with yogurt for dinner ahead or a night with strangers and pie, I went with choice C - optimism.

My only hesitation in going was that I feared I would burst into tears at some point. I am a crier. I have always been, and will always be. I cry when I'm happy, sad, frustrated, scared, hungry. You get it -right? I cry a lot. Just ask my boyfriend, who, after 3 years of dating me still looks perplexed when I tear up at the end of Tangled. I think my amount of tears is perfectly normal for a girl - especially at emotional moments in life - like spending your first Thanksgiving alone. And since I don't know anyone at the church yet - I didn't want my first impression there to be the strange, crying, American girl.

But I wanted to go - so I said a little prayer for courage, and in I went! My contribution - a bottle of wine. I wish I had had time to bake something, but since I made a last minute decision to go, my options were wine or jammy dodgers.

I was only standing alone for a few minutes when a group of three girls standing nearby noticed I was friendless and quickly approached to say hello. I let loose. And as tears streamed down my face and out spilled excuses of missing my family and being nervous and just arriving a week ago - I was hugged by three total strangers. And given tissues.

And while the recipes on the table weren't my sister's melt-in-your-mouth apple pie and my brother-in -law's savory sage stuffing, and there was not one familiar face around the Thanksgiving table, I had a truly wonderful meal.

So call me cheesy, because I am. But I had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and was thankful in a way I've never been thankful before.

I was thankful for the complete and utter kindness of strangers - something I typically don't think about while surrounded by my family and stuffing myself with pie. For a group of strangers to be able to come together like family, to show each other love and kindness, and to eat together the most special meal of the year - well - it brought me to tears.

And thinking about it further, it was likely the most authentic Thanksgiving I've ever had. I was like a pilgrim, really!

The pilgrims were in a new country - like me, and didn't know any of the Wampanoag indians, like me not knowing anyone in London! So if you substitute The Mayflower for British Airways Flight148, I pretty much spent the evening as a Pilgrim!

And around a table of other people who are also on their own in a country far from home, I felt like I belonged - and was deeply, truly, thankful.