Last updated November 24, 2010 11:38 p.m. PT
AP
Amanda Knox, right, is escorted by a prison guard before the start of a hearing in her appeals trial in Perugia, Italy. Knox, convicted of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher in December 2009, was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
PERUGIA, Italy -- Amanda Knox's friends and family are roasting an 18-pound turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner in Italy this week with the Seattle student whose murder conviction appeals trial began Wednesday.
As American students and expatriates abroad know, it's not simple to pull off a traditional American Thanksgiving in Italy.
It's uncommon to cook a whole turkey, which must often be special ordered weeks in advance from the local butcher. One then undoubtedly ends up having to choose between the male tacchino or the more delicate female tacchinella.
Pumpkin pie? Good luck with that.
And cranberries? Also native to North America. Forget about them. But Knox, the 23-year-old Seattle native who has been jailed in Italy since November 2007 for the murder of her 20-year-old British roommate, Meredith Kercher, might be in for a rare prison holiday treat.
Her stepfather, Chris Mellas, who is in Umbria now for the start of Knox's appeal, told seattlepi.com he has arranged for not only the turkey, but even Reynolds oven bags to roast it in, complete with Ocean Spray cranberries.
As "the guy who is usually in charge of Turkey Day," Mellas said he plans to use his own traditional recipe to cook the turkey himself -- stuffing it with fresh sage and a perforated orange, to retain moisture during oven roasting. Knox's Thanskgiving dinner will also include asparagus and mashed potatoes with gravy, as well as the company of two close friends visiting Perugia from Seattle.
For the family back home in Seattle, however, the mood is less festive.
"There's always an empty seat," Edda Mellas told ABC's "Good Morning America" this week. "And now my husband's over there, too, so we're kinda split. The holidays are always tough."
But at least the turkey will be moist. And there is this to be thankful for: Now that her appeal is officially under way, Knox's judicial slate has been (hypothetically) wiped clean.
There is a new presiding judge -- who is originally from Padua, in northern Italy -- and a new, heavily female jury.
The jurors could interpret the facts and evidence differently and reduce her sentence or even send her home.
They could just as well choose to confirm her guilty verdict or (though less likely) even hand down a harsher sentence.
At this stage in the legal process, all options are still on the table, and for that reason she can still hope. Since visitation hour at the Capanne prison aren't until Friday, Knox will have to give thanks a day late.
But a little taste of home-cooking beats even the best prison pasta, even if it is turkey on the day after Thanksgiving.
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