Thanksgiving at the Coronation House

When I proposed to the Brits in my department that we have Thanksgiving at my house this year, I was not thinking that it would have such a positive response. That's right! Last night Claudia and I celebrated Thanksgiving at Coronation house with nearly ten others; eight of whom were new to the experience.

During the day Claudia made sure to clean the house and make it look presentable for our guests. The bed was made, carpets were fluffed, candles were lit, plants and carpets were strategically placed, and the lighting was tuned to be just right. I have included some mildly artistic photos here to show just how sleek Coronation house can get with a little bit of TLC. You can compare these photos with those that I added last month when we first moved in.

Claudia and I spent much of the early day preparing dinner sides in the traditional Thanksgiving way: there's the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, and just when the kitchen was reaching capacity, there was the 11 pound turkey. Unfortunately things got off to a bit of a slow start ... someone (hmm, hmm ... Bret) mistook turmeric for tarragon and left the stuffing smelling like a typical Indian curry. This forced me to start again after waisting about an hour of time cooking some onions, carrots, and pear in turmeric. We'll try and use this odd mixture to make a soup.

After this rough start, everything seemed to fall into place without any further problems. We finished cooking around 6pm, in plenty of time for ourguests who began arriving at 6:30. The food was a smashing success! Others brought desserts, beer, and wine, making this one of the largest feasts that I've ever hosted. Everything turned out delicious and there was plenty to go around for all twelve of us. We spent the night dining, chatting, and playing mafia (see Halloween entry below) until things settled at 12:30 or so.

It's interesting to note that for the past two years I cooked Thanksgivingdinners in Pennsylvania for friends who were stuck in town, and each time I probably got around half the number of people that showed up last night. Of course this is mainly due to the fact that in the US, Thanksgiving is such a family-oriented holiday that few people are without their families. So it's pretty cool at how popular you can become by hosting such a gluttonous holidayin a foreign country. This implies to me that deep down inside, everyone is a fan of Thanksgiving.