Thanksgiving, Part 2

We also had our own Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. This time the food was much more authentically American, although we did have some of our own idiocyncratic family touches (for example, the traditional Thanksgiving lasagna). Everything tasted just right, except again for the mashed potatoes, as explained last time.

We did have one casualty, which was our attempt at a pecan pie. We really tried. It took searches in five stores to even find pecans, and the ones we did find were really pathetic looking little things. Once we opened them, we also found that they had already been cooked in some form, and soaked in sugar and salt. It took Lee and I an hour and half to just to shell one cup of nuts. In the end, it came to naught, because the pie got burned. It was a tragic loss.

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For this second Thanksgiving we invited some of the younger American teachers, along with one Canadian. Some of them were with us at the table in the last set of photos. I'll make some commentary as I go along.

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Preparation and Dinner:

We bought a second tabletop oven. I've set up both of them on a stand on the laundry porch, as you can see here. Lee has always said she wanted to have one of those over/under double ovens some day. This isn't really what she had in mind, but we couldn't have done Thanksgiving without it.

Along with our minature oven(s), we also have to work around our miniature refrigerator. Mostly, that just means we have to grocery shop more often and buy smaller quantities. However, preparing a large meal was too much. So we opened up all the windows in John's bedroom, which is the only room on the afternoon shade side of the building, and used his window sill as our expansion fridge. So here is some of the dinner, mixed in with John's LEGOs. As the weather is quite cold now, it worked out.

Lee with the stuffing, and Lauren with the rolls. We met Lauren in Boston when she and we were hired. She may well be the youngest teacher at the entire school, and she has declared us her parents away from home. We're happy to have her.

Me carving our solid gold turkey. It cost about $60 U.S. at one of the western shops. On the right is the full spread on the table ready for dinner. Behind me on the watercooler is the failed pecan pie.

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Family and Guests:

Nicole, from South Dakota; Elvina, from New York City; and Glen, from Canada. Elvina's parents are Chinese immigrants, and she still has relatives in Beijing.

You know, my children really are a life-loving, cheerful bunch. Why they never can manage to look that way in photos is beyond me. They look like inmates in a chow line.

It's all about the pies. Clockwise from bottom left: pumpkin, apple, lemon, and coconut. Lee makes fabulous pies, and these all tasted just they way they are supposed to (no faint Chinese flavors to be found).

The rare, whole-family picture. It is a bit blurry, but it's what I've got. Getting a picture of all of us is like trying to photograph an endangered species in its natural habitat.