I'm so excited!  Lizzy and I were talking in a comment on her blog about a tradition my friends and I used to have in Paris of holding a combined Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner which we imaginatively named Thanksmas.

The original Thanksmas was held by two of my (now) closest friends who knew one person in their new town.  They sent him out with an instruction to bring his friends to dinner.  He invited about five of us and the party went on until the small hours.  The following year the guest list had expanded and changed due to people moving on and new acquaintances.  We kept attending Thanksmas until the hosting couple left for their next expat location and Thanksmas died out.

No longer.  Thanksmas is back and Angela has graciously offered to host.  Lizzy has set up a forum post on her page to coordinate date choices and organise who will contribute what to a pot luck dinner. 

Amsterdam Expats head on over to Lizzy's post for more information.

By complete coincidence I am in the final planning stages of meeting the original Thanksmas hosts in Paris for a reunion weekend at the end of October.  There will be five of us there who attended the first Thanksmas and nine who attended the second, I lose count after that.  Since then, between us we will be adding into the mix four marriages, eight babies and seven country moves.  Long live Thanksmas.