"Thanksgiving Theatricals"

Being in Spain away from hearth and home during the holidays is difficult (well, home anyway, my house doesn't have a hearth, sadly). However, blessings abound in the form of awesome amigos and potential compatriots to be found floating around the European Union.

I started off thanksgiving preparations by catching a bus out to Hoyo to have a Pie-baking fiesta with Karsten Krahn. With one thing and another, we didn't actually end up starting on the pies until around 8pm in the evening. So our pie-fiesta turned into a pie-vigil, but we managed to push through with the help of roasted squash seeds (from the squash we used to make the "pumpkin" pie). Because we started from absolute scratch, we didn't finish the last of the two pies until around 2am. Collapsing into bed, we caught a few winks before dragging ourselves out of bed the next morning to start on the butterhorns, which are a small, doughy and delicious relative of the croissant. Well, at least ours were doughy. I think they are supposed to be a little crisper than they turned out, but we ran out of time because we had to run to catch the bus. Thankfully (no pun intended!) we made it to the bus stop in time, and spent the next 50 minutes guarding our pies and fresh-out-of-the-oven butterhorns from the rest of the salivating passengers, who kept eyeing the box that held the warm and wafting little chaps.

We arrived at the Bundys without incident, and deposited our gifts on the board like so many misplaced Magi, and joined the throng. And what a throng it was. The dinner ended up being a sort of BIC Thanksgiving reunion, with representatives from all over Spain, London, and the US. The list of attendees ran as follows:

Bruce, Merly, Joshua, and Daniel Bundy (4)
Antonio and Aída, the pastoral couple in Hoyo (2)
Karsten Krahn, Mari Burgos, and their son Liam (3)
Lin Berry, a fellow worker from Toledo (1)
John and JoLene Hawbaker (2)
Mercy Abreu, alias "the Abuela" (1)
Josiah Long, aka me (1)
Val Strite and Hope Newcomer, representing the UK (2)
Angela Buckwalter, studying in Salamanca (1)

Making for a total of 17 people crammed into the Bundy's apartment. The entire living room was one big table, cobbled together from their expandable dining table plus two other small end tables.

We passed a wonderful afternoon eating and laughing uproariously at Val and Hope, who spent their entire visit in Madrid putting on a non-stop, impromptu comedy act, if something impromptu can be non-stop, that is.

After much hilarity and about 5 too-many plates of foodstuffs, I toddled home and promptly slept through my class the next morning.