Cheesecake Wars

Now I feel I need to talk a little about my actual Thanksgiving. My sister Carolyn just did a lovely job articulating both her Bulgarian Thanksgiving and all that she's thankful for (which includes me!) And so by no means is this a blog competition, but she's inspired me to write a little more.

On Thursday morning I was supposed to wake up early to go to Virgina and go to a Thanksgiving service with Alacia and her family. And since Westmoreland did their Thanksgiving service last Sunday and I have never been to a Thanksgiving day service before I was a little excited. However, I was not so excited about having to get up earlier than I wake up for work to get there at 9:30 am. But my internal clock did the deciding for me; I slept through my alarm. This happens to me every now and then. Usually when I know I need to get up early I set two alarms. Right now I only have one. Uh oh. Well I woke up when I should have already been on the bus, so I called in late to Alacia and she agreed very sweetly to pick me up at the Metro at 11 after the service.

I got up and adventured to the grocery store to buy flowers. My lovely hosts had told me I didn't need to bring anything, but I didn't want to arrive empty handed so a bought a very pretty bouquet of orange and white flowers. Which I just realized I should have taken a picture of! But anyway, getting on the metro all dressed up wearing my slightly old fashioned winter coat (Carolyn, I'm not knocking the coat, I love it) carrying flowers made me feel a little displaced in time. Something about it felt a little surreal. Also I love people watching and it was especially fun trying to figure out where people might be going on the metro at 10 on Thanksgiving.

I got there with no problem. And when I got there most of the cooking was done. I lent my excellent skills with an electric mixer to the yams and that was it. So if you are shopping for a new Thanksgiving experience I much recommend a small dinner with a family that is not your own. There were only five of us, so not mountains of food and not too many dishes. And no matter how many times I asked there was not too much for me to do to help.

It was a very nice, and classic dinner with all the old favorites. The best part of the dinner was probably that Alacia and her brother had a cheesecake war. Which means that they both made cheesecake! In a cheesecake war, I think everyone wins.

Also of note, apparently before I came there were jokes about my friend bringing me as a date for her brother. And he was very nice and very polite, but that was it. As a note, if anyone else would like to set me up with any other young, elementary school music teachers, who also work at a theatre, I wouldn't mind. At all. Also I hope Alacia reads this! I'm reall just being silly, please don't set me up with anyone.

So I had a good time, headed home early where I phoned home and got passed around the living room on the phone, which is always confusing and funny. All in all it was a good first Thanksgiving away from home. And if Cheesecake Wars is the tradition I pick up from this year, even better!