Saturday, November 28, 2009

American-Canadian Thanksgiving

We did it! We had a great Thanksgiving dinner, with all the trimmings. Cooking began at about 9, when Nick and I started to prep. The kids started rolling in according to the usual sequence: Liv, Nikki, Jamie and finally Matt (that's been the order each day.) The kids helped with whatever tasks we gave them.

We cooked throughout the day, breaking only so Nick and I could drive into town and take care of a few errands (paying taxes and utilities, mostly) and only one more quick shopping for things we turned out to be missing (12-inch skillet, for one.) It poured all day, making it that much easier to spend the day inside cooking. The weather rained out the early evening block party that seems to be a tradition, which was for the best -- we had dinner uninterrupted.

Everything came out really well, much to our surprise, particularly the turkey which neither of us had cooked before. It came out well, crisp outside, moist and full of flavor inside. There were 2 kinds of potatoes (of course, this being PEI), stuffing, lots of roasted vegetables, cranberry relish (with pears and ginger) and more, more, more. Seemed like everyone loved everything, and the hope is that they'll love it as much today because we have a breathtaking amount of leftovers.

The kids helped with the cleaning -- some cheerfully, some grudgingly -- but no one was spared and we got it done quickly and efficiently.

After dinner we settled in to play Catch Phrase. Our first series broke by family, and I must say that the Lurries did well. Helps a lot that we share common memories. The girls were all on the same wavelength for anything to do with pop culture, Matt and I could read each other's mind on anything having to do with politics and history. The we broke up into different, non-familial teams to see what that would be like. It was Liv, Jamie and Matt on one side, Nick, Nikki and me on the other. Fun in a different way. Tremendous amount of laughing -- we'll always remember a blind James Earl Jones, the 15th President of the US, boob tubes and mammograms. Very fun, and we played for hours.

It's just after 8 here, and I'm the only one awake. I love the quiet morning here, with no sounds besides birdsong and the tapping of my typing.

Later today we'll go shopping for everything we need for tonight's wine/beer and snacks get-together, scheduled for 5:00. Probably about 10 people plus us, which should be nice.

And then tomorrow we head home. Before we leave Charlottetown we're going to have lunch at the Old Triangle -- the Irish bar we found last time which was memorable for two reasons: our favorite Celtic fiddler Roy plays there on Sunday, and Liv had a Mediterranean penne dish she still raves about. Mediterranean pasta in an Irish pub in PEI -- why not?

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