Sunday, November 19, 2006

laura and flat stanley come for jaime's thanksgiving 2006

flat stanley came from virginia to visit his friends (see left) and joined us for thanksgiving in larri's house, where we remembered our friend jaime and had a few laughs. we gave thanks for all the good things that happened this year, including the much acclaimed democratic victory in recent elections - although we have to admit that this part of the celebration raised some controversy.
it was stanley's first visit to madrid, but he promised to come back next year.
laura (see her in the hands of her daddy, josé luis), another first-comer to our celebration, loved susan's turkey and is already thinking of what to wear next year. although you see her with her pacifier, it really wasn't to pacify her (she doesn't need it, always gets what she wants) but to leave some turkey for her brothers and other peers. it was a tough job since daddy has taught her very well indeed.
big star, as ususal, was that indecent pavo (over 24 lb) that came flying from italy to make everybody happy. when susan first saw it she almost fainted. you see, she had a new oven (and a new full kitchen, so-called the escorial), and was not sure whether she was going to be able to treat the pavo as he deserved and she wished. although she was nervous, everything came out splendidly and everybody was more than happy and contented. we sat for lunch at 3 pm and by 10:30pm there were people still sitting at the table. so imagine the banquet.
i don't think indians and pilgrims ever thought in anything half as pantagruelic, but you know how the world has developed in crazy directions. we also had some sweet potatoes, in remembrance of the first time, but this year we missed the corn bread (we had a fake one made out of wheat and sage, i think) and the popcorn. i don't know why. i imagine some logistics troubles. the cranberry sauce we didn't miss, it was excellent. we finished smoking the peace pipe with everyone giving thanks in public (everybody thanked his family and darling... aghh, it was a little bit too much, to my taste, but you have to understand this pc world we are living in, you know, 'do as i say, not as i do?...).

then we started with santa teresa's 200-year anniversay rum, from venezuela. you would not believe it. smooth as you can imagine, you had to be careful as it when down far easier then the fire water of the old pilgrim's age. at that time we sang those old songs, both indian and soul. you know, hung a shay, winna winna wa wa, oh when the saints, america the beautiful, my country tis of thee... very comforting.
the pic below the flags (in the picture above) correspond to last year celebration, which we all praised.
the cover of the song book was a bit political, as you can see. they prepared it while i was away on a business trip, and never showed it to me before the fact. poor george. it so easy to pick on him. after singing, it was time for the metapatica contest prepared by our cuban friend mario. then friendliness ended (for a while) and we all got competitive. susan (she doesn't like to loose, not even when playing with her little boys) lost the tiebreak with gema. but, anyhow, she got the big star as we wanted her to be willing and well inclined next year.

i did not dare to take pics of the table after the fact, but, as you can see, at the beginning it was beautifully set.