Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving. A time honored American tradition...

So how do the Brits do it?

Not quite as good as Mom's, but not too shabby either. My study abroad program put together a nice little spread (out of the 300 people in the General Course, the overwhelming majority of us are American), which was great because it meant that I didn't have to try and cook a turkey by myself. That would have exhausted my cooking skills and would probably result in me burning my dorm down.

The catering staff got most of it right, but a few things struck me as odd:

1) They put orange juice on the table. ???? I wasn't aware that orange juice was a traditional Thanksgiving drink! Thanks for the enlightenment!

2) They posted a sign of words associated with the holiday, and included "jesus". I realize that Thanksgiving has religious elements for a lot of Americans, but what about the pilgrims? Thanksgiving is a secular holiday about family and realizing what's good in life, not Jesus.

3) They had something called nut loaf instead of stuffing. I'm a big fan of stuffing, so this annoyed me a bit. You can kind of see it peeking out from behind the sweet potatoes. Someone thought it was a giblet... thankfully it wasn't!

The girls! When people told me that they were getting dressed up, I thought they mean dressed up. Here I come in wearing fancy makeup, nice curly hair (although you can't really tell from this picture), and a sparkly dress... and find that I'm WAY overdressed. OOPS!
Barbara's mulled wine. SOOOOO GOOD! I'd give you the recipe, but then I'd have to kill you. I nearly died myself!
Ah, the bakers victorious! This is right before the moment of truth...
Sitting around, watching the football game. People wandered in, slightly confused, before we told them it was Thanksgiving. Some people even tried some pie!