"These mashed potatoes are so creamy"

"No, I swear it's fine. Look! I just took a photo! See?!"
-Me, as Meghan's camera took the last photo it would ever take

Thanksgiving

I like to think I was the bringer of Thanksgiving this year to Hanoi. But maybe I should share the title with Bayley. Our Doi Can dorm provided an American Thanksgiving to 10 Americans, 2 Canadians, one Vietnamese and one Belarussian on Thanksgiving evening last week. We had a meal catered (that sounds so fancy!) from Vine with all the fixings. I truly thought everything they made us was fantastic! And someone brought a homemade apple pie- heaven.

This event was made possible by clearing out our garage area, parking the bikes outside, sweeping and lugging both the kitchen table and Jackie’s desk down the steps. Chairs were lugged, borrowed (2 from one neighbor, 1 from another) or improvised from futons, making the guests sitting on the latter (which included yours truly) a good 12 inches shorter than everyone else. The tables, pushed together to form a ‘t’, were packed. Bayley had green autumnal colored tablecloths made and I bought orange napkins, extra forks and plastic glasses. I tried to have the correct number of real plates and forks but 3 extra people came and those hopes were dashed. Pretty sure I used a plastic plate and fork the entire night, but it didn’t matter since the food was so good. Tyler cut the turkey, I uncorked wine, Bayley played her ‘Thanksgiving mix’, Jackie was social and Judith, Jeff & Meghan helped serve.

I drank enough wine to make me intensely sleepy but held off sleep until I had successfully dropped Meghan’s camera into my glass of red wine. How did I do it? I have no idea. Could I ever do it again while trying? Probably not. Still trying to figure out how that happened. It failed to take photos after that but didn’t ruin the photos already taken, thank goodness.

Overall, a huge success. The highlight for me was learning that it was our Belarussian guest’s first Thanksgiving and the ensuing attempts of our end of the table to teach him what a ‘real’ Thanksgiving entailed. “It’s not a ‘real’ Thanksgiving until you have to undo the top button of your pants”, or “It’s not a ‘real’ Thanksgiving until you feel nauseous”, or even “It’s not a ‘real’ Thanksgiving until you eat until you’re overly full, take a break and then come back for more.” The Belarussian ate a lot only at our begging, until he claimed to be so full he couldn’t eat anymore and we stopped hounding him. Needless to say, his excitement and enthusiasm at the serving of dessert brought a round of applause from the Thanksgiving veterans.