2003-12-07 - 10:31 a.m.

American Thanksgiving - Retrospective

Teranika seems to have fallen by the wayside in the rush of recent events. It's been one entire week since my huge American Thanksgiving fest at Julia's house.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity, starting Saturday morning with immense quantities of food shopping with the help of Carsten With Car (a cute oldstyle VW Golf! Environmental activist that I am, I still have a soft spot for those little guys).

Returned home quickly to bundle myself into super warm clothing so that I could go sit on the market square for three hours playing German Christmas Carols. This remains one of my very favorite concerts to play in J*na even if it was BUTT COLD and RAINING and MISERABLE. And, as it was the opening of the Christmas market, there was an overabundance of Gluehwein - perfect source of false heat. Do you know how yummy a Gluehwein is when it has a generous shot of Amaretto?? You just have to have another. Oh dear. I started imbibing before the concert even began..by the time of my dreadful vocal solo "I will sing this secret love song" I was sufficiently lubricated to smear on the appropriate heartfelt schmaltz required by the lyrics.

But it didn't stop there, because Carsten With Car came by and I just had to have another, to thank him for owning and offering his cute little Golf for Thanksgiving purposes. And then the Tower Blowers (musicians in the Rathaus) began. Oohhh, Christmas is Heeere! And then the conductor had to buy another Gluehwein for the Singer...oh dear. CWC drove me home (still in the cute little Golf), but I don't remember much, except stumbling back into my bed at 4 in the afternoon, and waking up three hours later with a crippling gluehwein hangover....

....and just in time to prepare for the NEXT party. Yes, the Christmas season was already upon us in November. By the time I returned home, I wasn't QUITE in shape for Thanksgiving preparation...but nevertheless, I puttered around in the kitchen until 3am, only to wake up at 8:00 to go fully into Thanksgiving action.

I love cooking American Thanksgiving! I guess this is a surprising revelation because I basically worked nonstop until 4 in the afternoon, when I finally went home to wash off the grease before the guests arrived. It somehow gets easier and less stresful each year as it becomes more and more routinized (and I find more and more lackeys to help).

But the party was excellent, as usual it felt very good to have a group of warm, uncomplicated people around enjoying the feast, and all feeling warm and happy, and thankful...

It's now been a week since that party, and tonight we (K, me, and possibly also A) will go to Julia's to revisit my German American Thanksgiving weekend. We will pick up ALL the frozen leftovers, and we will partake of some homemade hungarian gluehwein...oh dear.