A Mid-Westerner in Mid-Wales

To celebrate Thanksgiving, we invited our friends over for a housewarming/birthday/Thanksgiving feast.  Our little living room accommodated 15 of us, and the food could have accommodated double that, per American tradition.  Some things I learned:

1) they do sell stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce here so I did not need to import it from Chicago

2) we couldn’t find corn bread or corn meal readily; we ended up getting “corn grits” from an organic store that also sold it under polenta

3) lots of people here have heard about Thanksgiving but are very curious about what actually goes on

4) many people had never tasted pumpkin pie before we introduced them to it

5) they sell many different kinds of cream here, single, double, non-whipping, whipping, but no half and half

6) my cousin, J, was right: Rock Band is great for making new friends!

Everyone took a turn!

Dan educated everyone about Thanksgiving traditions, including telling the story about the pilgrims and Plymouth and the hard winter, watching American football, and the traditional family fights or secrets that come out.  We all went around and said what we were thankful for.  As usual, I have a lot of things to be thankful for, and it was nice to have new friends to share them with.  One thing in particular that I’m thankful for is passing my driving test!  I now have a full British license, but for some reason being more qualified to drive here has made our insurance premium go up by £200.  Instead of arguing, I’ve learned to shake my head and just say “Typical.”