The Gang Celebrates Thanksgiving

Cue the music to Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Due to certain scheduling conflicts and because we will celebrate a holiday whenever the heck we please thank you very much, the gang got together to celebrate Thanksgiving on Wednesday in place of the traditional Thursday. It was also a "goodbye, my lover" party for the Canadians as they were heading back to the great white north to play in some hot Canadian girl all-star hockey game. I'm pretty sure they also had a Lumberjack Contest to attend complete with a Molson sponsorship and a series of discussions ending with the phrase, "Noo doot aboot it!"

Okay back on topic - the roster for this momentous occasion. There were over twenty individuals attending, so I will fore go attempting to name them all as I don't want to forget anyone and/or misspell names and/or it seems like a lot of work and I'm having a particularly lethargic moment. What I will do is say that it was the Family Meal Fridays crew plus some extras - including the owner of the hotel and restaurant by which we are employed - Bob. Needless to say, the food had to be done right, and there had to be a lot of it.

Beth and I started the running around at 9am, trying to accumulate not only all the necessary ingredients for all of our dishes, but also a thawed out turkey (as it seemed to be an oversight until the morning of). We found a beautiful 16 pound bird and made our way back to the apartment to start the prep work. Everything was going smoothly until we got to the sweet potatoes. Apparently, there is a difference between American sweet potatoes and Caribbean sweet potatoes, because these things were Wayne Brady (white on the inside). Bottom line is this - by the end of the day we had to make four runs to four different stores to meet all our needs. Quick shout out to Beth a.k.a. Chef for cheffing up an incredible Thanksgiving dinner. The customer satisfaction survey held very high marks.

8pm rolls around and people start to arrive. This was a BYOB event, and believe me when I say that people brought beverages. I'm pretty sure we have a fully stocked liquor cabinet this morning. Don't fret, it will be depleted back to oblivion very, very soon. Before we ate, in lieu of saying grace, we went around the table and each said one thing for which we were thankful. There were so many kind words shared and beautiful sentiments that it was clear we really were a very tight knit group - like the Goonies. For example, Georgie was thankful for indoor plumbing. I was thankful that the Bruins were over .500.

Once the food was consumed and the music was pumping, it pretty much turned back into a Family Meal Fridays event. The linen tablecloths were removed from the tables and Flip Cup became the name of the game. Only this time it was Survivor Flip Cup. The correct rules (and I checked with my friend Google this morning - he knows everything) are as follows:

1. Normal flip cup.
2. At the end of the round, the losing team gets to select someone off THEIR team (typically he or she that performed the worst) to be voted off.
3. Their cup is then absorbed by another player so that the original amount of cups remains the same.
4. At no point does the winning team vote someone off.
5. First team to lose all their players loses Survivor Flip Cup.

The rules we followed, however, would prompt an error message on your computer if I tried to explain them. There was negotiating. There was haggling. I was definitely the worst player for multiple rounds (especially the first) but somehow survived through until there were just two of us. Safe to say, there was some controversy and some sour feelings.

Today is Thanksgiving Day, which is a day normally filled with football and family, turkey and touchdowns, cribbage and chex mix. While I won't be partaking in any heated charades battles this year, the bitter is just a little more sweet knowing I have a second family down here in the Virgin Islands. This year, that is what I'm thankful for.