A Very British Thanksgiving

So we all remember when my roommate made a comment about how Thanksgiving is a celebration of independence from Britain and I quickly set the record straight, well, I also ended up making a thanksgiving dinner for said roommate, and eight other people of course.

This last thursday a group of new friends arrived at my house and we began cooking.  The turkey was, for all intents and purposes, a group effort.  I had intended to have it in the oven by the time people started arriving but, well, he wasn't keen on thawing as quickly as we would have liked.  Oh yeah, and we named him Rhys.  He was our happy little welsh turkey, sitting in the sink in water and desperately trying to remain frozen.  Nevertheless, a few tried a true methods had him happily slathered in butter, divested of giblets and neck, and cooking merrily in the oven.

At this point, there were just me and a two other American girls working on the dinner (Left: Rose, Right Kerry), and mostly that was chopping and peeling and laughing and drinking wine.  Lea joined us a bit later.  While working, we listened to christmas music, watched Charlie Brown, and talked about the various traditions we have back home.  And of course, we made turkey hands.  You know, where you trace your hand and turn it into a turkey?  Everyone had to do it.  It was required.  As payment for dinner, you had to make a turkey hand.

Once dinner was ready, we all gathered around and took our seats and I had everyone say something they were thankful for, in the spirit of the day.  I think what made me happiest was that I actually recieved completely honest, heartfelt responses.  So often with young people you get answers like, "I'm thankful for jolly bears" or something similar to that.  Only Rob said he was thankful for his shirt, but everyone else said honest, real things they were thankful for, studying here, getting to be at a thanksgiving dinner, having friends, feeling welcomed, that sort of thing.  It was wonderfully honest.

Then we ate.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, gravy, cranberry sauce (homemade), rolls, stuffing (from inside the bird), vegan stuffing with eggplant (Sasha's girlfriend Lily is essentially vegan, and interestingly that stuffing was one of the biggest hits of the night), carrots sautéed with brown sugar and cinnamon, roasted garlic, green jello salad, and brussels sprouts.  I dont think anything was ignored except maybe the green jello salad (not surprising), although even that a few people tried and said it was decent.  No one had seconds, of course, and there were several, "I'm sorry, but this sh*t is weird."   Here's our spread:

We also had wine and "appeltizer" which is basically sparkling apple juice somewhat in the vein of Martinelli's.

After we ate, when everyone was beginning to fall into turkey coma, we (the americans) got everyone up and we all went for a walk.  Sadly, Jordan, one of my friends, came down sick and couldn't make it.  So we put all together a few takeaway boxes for her and walked them over to Beck House.  Then we walked down to the beach, got our feet soaking wet with freezing ocean water, and traipsed back home for a dessert (or pudding) of peach pie, apple crumble, and chocolate muffins, all of which was amazing.

Then, and this is the really amazing part, we all came together to do the washing up.  Kerry, Rose, and Rob did the dishes, Jeremy, Sasha, and Lea all put things into containers and fit them into the fridge, and Ross helped me remove the remainder of meat from the turkey for later.

In all, I'm calling this one a success.  There's not much more to say than that, so I'll leave it there.

Have some bad photos (more to follow, I'll change the title to read "updated" when I've added them, so check back!)