Don't miss out: La cena de gracias

On Saturday morning, I went on a mission with Lucia. We started our mission looking for a microwave, because we knew it would be helpful for our Thanksgiving dinner. Also, our landlord is paying for it, so we figure why not? However, the one secondhand place that we knew about didn't have a microwave. The funny thing is, Karin said she saw two girls carrying a microwave down the street at the exact time that we were starting our journey, so clearly those girls stole the microwave right out from under us! Needless to say, we didn't find a microwave yet, but it wasn't too big of an issue for Thanksgiving dinner. Stephanie, Karin, Lucia, and I all went grocery shopping for some of the things we still needed, like the turkey, veggies, potatoes, etc. I would have sworn that everyone else was last minute shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, too. The store was unbelievably packed and it definitely made it feel like we were in a U.S. grocery store a few hours before Thanksgiving dinner.

Once Lucia and I got home, we cranked the Christmas music and started making lunch and deviled eggs. By golly, are hard boiled eggs hard to shell. Come to find out, there is a little trick to make it easier to shell. It is like put salt or baking soda or baking powder in the boiling water. It would have been nice to know that, even though I don't know which one it is that you're supposed to put in. Ha. Also, we really don't have much of a measuring cup or spoon, so I was making measurements up when it came to mixing the yolk, mustard, mayo, and vinegar. They definitely weren't made correctly and they were definitely hideous, but they tasted okay. I mean, they didn't taste correct, but they were still good. Anyway, we also cleaned and Lucia put on some of her music that she has recorded and it was awesome! Lucia also made cookies shaped like duckies. Ducks are close enough to turkeys, right? Haha.

Stephanie and Karin came over later bearing gifts. They had potatoes, stuffing, and the pumpkin pies! The important things. We soon started cooking the turkey, and exactly what I was afraid of happened..the turkey turned out dry..boo! That's okay though. Although the turkey is supposed to be the life of the party, it was already a let down that we decided to get turkey filets and not a whole turkey, so I figure it's not that big of a deal that it was dry. That's especially because the other food was phenomenal! Although, I will say that the food was a little cold, too. But we did what we could with a stove top and oven. Also, I might add that we told people to be there at 7:30 p.m. and the first guests didn't show up until 8 p.m. and we didn't eat until close to 8:45 p.m. It's next to impossible to keep food warm for that long. :P Anyway, I know it seems like I am complaining, it's probably because I hosted and I am just hypercritical of the parts that I could try and control, like the turkey being dry or the food being warm, but in all reality, I thought everything turned our excellent, so I hope that everyone else enjoyed it, too!

We started the dinner by briefly explaining the background of Thanksgiving, then we had everyone go around and say what they were thankful for, Karin gave the blessing, and then we gorged. It was so good! After dinner, we enjoyed some pumpkin pie and good conversation. We made good, harmless fun of British English and the Spaniards bashed our food in the U.S. and some claimed "Monsanto is evil." I know we discussed other things, but those are the topics that stand out to me right now as I write this. Like I said, I am pretty sure the dinner was a success and I'm glad that we could share Thanksgiving with some other people! By the way, we had a total of eleven people here. I think that's a pretty good number, especially because only four of us were U.S. Americans!