Square pie & dinner for 16

We're settled back on the boat now and had a lovely dinner party last night to celebrate Thanksgiving with "Ocean Breezes", "Wyndeavor", "Calliope" and all six of us. Willi and Lou's friends, Sepp and Geri have gone off in the rental car to explore on their own, so now we're all six staying aboard Imagine for the next week. Thanksgiving turned out great, with the help of Lou, who brought canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce in her luggage. I sometimes forget how sparse my galley is compared to my kitchen at home, and this time I was short one pie plate. I even asked around to borrow one and none were to be found, so we had one round pie and one square one. No one complained and they disappeared quickly. The Ocean Breezes family had never had pumpkin pie before. Two years ago, we had Thanksgiving with Lou (Canadian), Willi (Austrian), Mike & Taryn Foster (Canadian) and our Australian friends the Muncktons. Last year we had Canadians over for American Thanksgiving in Turtle Bay Mexico. This year we had a British family, Willi and Lou, the Fosters from Canada and Skip and Wendy who are from Seattle. Maybe next year we'll have some Americans over, in America.

I found the only turkey in town, which was small and cost $38. My frugal nature almost got the better of me at the store, but what is Thanksgiving without turkey? Skip made squash and a yummy Caesar salad, we had sweet potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, bread pudding, pasta, and fruit salad. I had to use Rubbermaid containers for serving containers, after I ran out of bowls. At home I have more crystal bowls than I could hope to use, but since I didn't bring any, we had a fairly casual presentation. The kids cut out fall leaves though, and I put out the place mats, so we did have a bit of festive atmosphere. The weather turned ugly in the afternoon, with 30 knot gusts and driving rain. Everyone came in-between showers around 4 and stayed until 9 or so. It's cold in the evenings, so we put all six kids in our bed with a DVD, and the grown ups had coffee and more wine around the table. I'm always glad of such a big cockpit and table when we have company. We don't have heat, so we've been lighting the lantern and candles in the evening and it takes the chill out of the air.

The kids fall asleep on our bed and get moved to the settees (couches) when we have company. Willi and Lou are using the aft cabin and bathroom. It works out well and the kids think it's a bit like an adventure. They sleep in the salon during passage anyways, so they are comfortable there.

We're off in the car today for a bit of local sight seeing. The weather is still windy, but not cloudy, so we hope to have a nice day out and about.

-Kellie