I grew up in Germany where Thanksgiving theoretically exists as Erntedankfest, but it’s not nearly as big a deal as here.
So perhaps I may share the first Thanksgiving I celebrated with my PIC 26 years ago 
Picture this: Berlin, 1999. It is cold, gray, dark — just like Novembers in Berlin tend to be.
My PIC and I had met only 2 months prior, and we were dating heavily 
and when he found out that I’d never had a proper Thxgiving meal he decided to host one in his small apartment, inviting a few other lonely souls aka Fulbright grantees with no place to go (this was before the Commission started hosting annual Thxgiving events).
He made turkey and pecan pie, the latter of which he had to run to multiple stores to find ALLLLLL the sugar sources that go into that, finally finding it at — where else? KaDeWe, one of the largest and most famous department stores in Berlin with a massive food section on the 6th floor.
Meanwhile, I was going to contribute braised red cabbage, which I usually start with bacon fat. One of our guests was Jewish (though he didn’t keep kosher), so I made an extra batch with goose fat for him.
As far as I can remember, everything turned out nicely — the pecan pie especially, and we all hung out until well after midnight.
It’ll be our 25th Thxgiving together today 
