Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I cooked Thanksgiving dinner back in September when I brought in contraband turkey, we decided to take the easy way out and attend the AmCham dinner at the InterCon hotel. The girls got dressed up and Madeline was in town for the week so it was a very nice way to spend the evening. With some Kazakh twists.

We joined some Chevron friends who have daughters Emily and Marcy's ages - built in friends.

Marcy and Jordan both said it was the best Thanksgiving ever. They didn't eat much but enjoyed the slides and running around drinking free flowing soda and ice cream.

The food was pretty good. The turkey was turkey and the mashed potatoes were really good (but they obviously did not plan well and when they ran out they had to serve rice as a substitute.) The stuffing was interesting but actually very good - it had hard boiled egg in it chopped very small. And the gravy was orange???? (maybe tomato-based????) Dessert was typical buffett table dessert selection but Madeline brought pumpkin pie ingredients with her so I made two pies that we all ate very quickly.

They provided entertainment for the children (and food - hot dogs - our kids ate turkey, etc.) which included a huge bounce house that was quickly overwhelmed and eventually vomited on. They also had some characters to supervise party games. Being that it was an American party they had (I guess) what they figure was an American theme. Minnie and Mickey and Snow White and some Santa looking elf guy. Apparently, Shrek had been at the party early on but I heard he got in the bounce house where some older boys violently tackled him and he left.

As I said, a nice evening but definitely not your typical Thanksgiving dinner. I think it was a bit too chaotic for me. Maybe next year we will get some roast chicken and have pseudo-Thanksgiving at home.