Monday, November 26, 2007

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Prague. In fact if you tell a Czech you celebrated Thanksgiving they won't know what you're talking about. But we pulled off another American holiday with all the trimmings! Twice! First, Ed Barner invited us to go the Obecni Dum (one of the nicest restaurants in Prague) with ALL the missionaries in the Czech/Slovak mission (which would be between 100 and 150 missionaries!) and some of Ed's American friends. Even though the invitation was extended to Vinson too, unlike last year, we decided to get a babysitter and relax. This year was A LOT funner than last year, probably because we knew people. Dan is the branch mission leader - so we get to know 14 missionaries at a time and it was fun to see all the old missionaries in Prague and catch up. Some interesting details about the meal was that the turkey was 20 kg (over 40 pounds!!!!), everyone got rootbeer (something impossible to find here) and the first thing the resturant ran out of was zely (the only czech dish provided). Are those missionaries really missing home cooking?Here is a picture of us in front of the Obecni Dum.

Friday I threw a Thanksgiving party at our house. I invited some people and kept inviting until I had to start stressing as to how they would all be able to sit down. The final plan involved seating people on the couches and borrowing two chairs. Come Friday mornin I thought I had everything under control. Pies were cooked and in the fridge, the house was clean, our table and desk (which functioned as a table) were in place and the table was set . . . and we only had six sets of silverware, but I was going to cook the turkey at the church and borrow silverware from there. Dan convinced me to call the church to make sure the kitchen would be free. What! There's a meeting there?! Oh for those of you that don't know, we don't have an oven. We have a toaster oven to handle all of our cooking needs. Not going to work with our turkey. Thanks to Melinda, who kindly let us use her oven, we were set . . . and Sister Nelson who brought some silverware. The tricky thing was getting the turkey home. Dan helped me by carrying Vinson and the stroller carried the turkey. We covered the turkey up with a blanket on the tram ride home. People must have thought we had the best smelling baby in the world!

It was our first turkey ever and I must say, we did a great job. (tips: I stuffed it with celery and an onion and stuck, or more like molded a stick of butter on the turkey) SO GOOD!!! Becca and Logan brought rolls, the Wilcox's brought Jello, the Nelson's brought scalloped potatoes, Chris and Marketa brought stuffing, and Melinda, Britt, and Laurence brought mashed potatoes! YUM!! Dinner was amazing. I went back for seconds on JELLO. It was the first time I'd had jello in more than a year and I can't believe how good it tasted. Marketa (the only Czech joining us) wouldn't touch the stuff :)
In the picture is Brother Nelson, Sister Nelson, Chris, Marketa, Becca and Logan.
Brother and Sister Wilcox, Dan, Vinson, Me, Britt and Melinda. We had a great time eating and chatting. Thanksgiving was a success!

7 comments:

Amateur Steph said...

Val you are amazing! That turkey in the stroller was awesome. I think I would rather take a turkey for a run than Mckenzie. :)
I'm glad you pulled everything off and even got two Thanksgivings.

Anonymous said...

Holly and I laughed hysterically at the turkey in the stroller-- so you know!

Unknown said...

Val, your turkey looks green. I loved the stroller idea. Hey, I put some pictures on my blog about Thanksgiving, too. I figured that probably one of the only ways that you can ever see pictures of US is if I put them on the blog. I hope you know that my blog is 90% for you.

Liesl said...

Fantastic pictures. Next time you cook Vinson, go for medium-rare instead of well-done. And try to dress the turkey.

Cris Pebley said...

That sounds like a pretty cool Thanksgiving. It's great seeing how much fun you guys are having! (Matt & Cristina)

Me, Hilary Billings said...

I stumbled across your blog and was really excited because I know Ed and I visited Prague a while ago. It looks so fun.

Anonymous said...

Real nice ! Many thanks !