Gobble Gobble Day

I promised to tell you all about my wonderful Thanksgiving, so here it is!

I asked for half the day off so that I could go to Thanksgiving dinner.  My boss said, "take the whole day; this is like the most important holiday in America."  I don't know about that, but I took the whole day.  Turns out that was a very good thing.

Pot-Luck, Luck Needed

The dinner was a pot-luck, turkey provided, everyone brings a side or dessert.  I wanted to contribute, despite my limited kitchen access and even more limited resources, so I decided to make deviled eggs.  I already had mayo, and I knew just where to buy a carton of eggs.  Plus, Dara and Feyi had been begging for egg salad again.  I figured I could use whatever eggs weren't devil-able for the egg salad.

It took the entire morning to make the deviled eggs.  I started at about 7:30 when I went to buy the eggs, and finished around 11.  For some reason, the yolk of African boiled eggs always goes to the fat end of the eggs.  This means you can't do deviled eggs the normal oblong way.  Instead, you have to slice off the top of the fat end and use the rest of the egg as the bowl part.  Result: one deviled egg per normal egg instead of two.  I used all the little sliced off pieces and  extra yolk for Dara and Feyi's egg salad, so it worked out well.

I didn't have any paprika, but luckily, his other girl going to the Thanksgiving had some in her purse.  She let me use it on the eggs.  And Mr. Embassy-Man had a deviled egg tray, so that helped a lot with the presentation.  (I had carried the eggs to his place in a cut-apart cereal box.)  They seemed to be ok; only 4 were left by the end of the dinner.

The Dinner

Mr. Embassy-Man is really thoughtful.  He asked the other Embassy people if the random Americans could join them for their Thanksgiving, and they said yes!  Hooray!  So two other random Americans and I met at Mr. Embassy-Man's house and headed over to the pot-luck with him and one of his neighbors.

Mr. Embassy-Man often thinks to include us in different events around Abuja, so we often go places in this big sort of group.  The Ambassador asked Mr. Embassy-Man if we were his posse, or something else, since he'd just gotten back from Turkey.  I thought that was really cute.

We are Thankful for This Food

The food was fantastic!  Stuffing, cheesey-potato bake, pasta salad, barley, rice, Turkish delight.  (Now I understand why that boy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe sold out his siblings for that stuff.  It's good!)  There's was plenty of good food that I didn't eat, too.  Of course I didn't have the turkey, or the caviar that Mr. Embassy-Man brought.  I also missed out on the mashed-potatoes and the ice cream.  By the time they arrived, I was too full of other goodies.

I did not have any green bean caserole.  Nobody made any.  Mr. Embassy-Man thought about it but didn't, but that was probably a good thing.  I found out that Mr. Embassy-Man uses cream of chicken soup in his green bean casserole!  How can you ruin a perfectly good vegetarian side-dish like that?!  And not tell the vegetarians?  Oh well.

For Our Homes

The house where they held the dinner was gorgeous, and huge!  Plush carpeting, beautiful windows, soft and cushy furniture.  I mean, it was as if that security gate at the front had been a teleporter that moved us to the US.  I was scared I would break one of the nice dishes, or spill something on the rug.  I didn't, whew!

And for the People in Our Lives

The Embassy-crowd seems like a really good group.  They were very nice in allowing us to join them, and are always friendly when we chat with them.  They also seem to be forgiving.  Us random Americans, not really knowing proper protocol (or moving in circles like this) failed to stand up when the Ambassador came into the room.  We felt kinda bad about it as soon as realized we should have stood, which was right about when everyone else sat down, but nobody seemed upset by our faux pas.

The Ambassador's parents were visiting her from South Carolina, so I got to talk to them for a bit.  That was really cool.  They're very nice and were having a good trip.  Visiting Africa was a life-long dream.  To finally get come to Africa and get to see your daughter, the Ambassador, that's got to be amazing.

We (the random Americans) also got to visit with some other people whom we had met previously, either a Mr. Embassy-Man's birthday party, the Election Night, or some other random event to which he invited us.  They're all very nice, even if it can be a little intimidating talking to them sometimes.... more on that tomorrow.

After Dinner

Mr. Embassy-Man and his posse returned to his place after the Dinner, where we got to watch the last half of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  That was wonderful; it really rounded out Thanksgiving.  It was on live, so evening time here.  I guess next year, I'll have to get up super early if I want to watch it.  Wendy's right, live tv on the West Coast sucks.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, too!