An (un)Expected Party, Part II

Now Playing: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams. Track 11, "The Stone Table".

Continuing on....

I went up to my room and read through articles for the class on Beowulf, listening meanwhile to the music for "The Nutcracker"--appropriately festive, it seemed to me. After I finished the articles, I had about fifteen minutes in which I curled up on my bed and dozed under a blanket. The room seemed very big and dark and cold. At about six forty-five, I could hear feet pounding up and down the stairs. Linsey and Catherine knocked on my door. "It's time," they said, and we hurried down.

When I stepped into the kitchen, I was amazed: The glaring fluorescent lights were off, and in the corner a floor lamp shed a pleasant household glow. The two tables had been pushed side-by-side to make a square, and in the middle three candles were burning. Scattered over the tables were Thanksgiving decorations in the form of fake cloth leaves and little statues of Pilgrims and Indians. The napkins had been folded in elegant fan shapes. Paper pumpkins hung from the cupboards; a paper turkey perched resplendent on the wall under the clock; a big banner reading "Happy Thanksgiving!" was strung between the windows. Emma, Rachel, Daphne, and Deborah were already in the room. Catherine, Linsey, and I sat down at the table, and the other people in Renwick trickled in. Once we were all seated, we bowed our heads, and Andy M. gave thanks.

The meal really was a feast. To start off, everyone had a little plate of fruit--gushingly juicy honeydew melon with strawberries and raspberries in a sweet red sauce. The silence was a bit awkward at first, but when it was time to carve the turkey, there was plenty of laughter. Deborah called for "a male" to do the job, and Phil rose to the task. The turkey must've weighed at least twenty pounds, sitting resplendent on the counter, dripping butter and fat with stuffing. Eventually Emmaline and Deborah took over from Phil, and Rachel, and Daphne handed out the plates with portions of white meat, while Emma took all the other good things out of the ovens, to be passed around the table. Regular stuffing out of the turkey, moist and hot; cranberry-and-lemon stuffing; mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and "chips" with sausages (have to get the Northern Irish flair in there...!); peas and corn; green beans; sweet potatoes; cranberry sauce. I was sitting between Linsey and Samuel. Samuel, Andy L., and Matthew were all dubious about the sweet potatoes, but I convinced them to try some, and they actually liked it. We had sloeur (fizzy grape juice, basically) to drink. The meal was absolutely delicious--the only thing missing being Laura's dinner rolls and my mother's corndish. :o)

There was a long contented silence while everyone ate. The candles flickered on the table, and we handed around the deep dishes. Then stories started to come out about how the meal had been made, everyone laughing: Emmaline had carried the floor lamp and a pumpkin pie all the way from Donegall Road (about half-a-mile) to Renwick. The boys joked about how if she'd been thinking hard enough, she would've been able to light her way to Renwick with it. Daphne had christened the turkey Fred, and on Tuesday night, when she and Rachel were preparing to bake it, Emma and Ian had been fascinated with the turkey's innards and had amused themselves with dissecting the lungs, kidney, and heart. Rachel and Daphne had spent two hours in Tesco Monday afternoon buying the needed supplies, and had been made fun of by the cashier because of their two loaded shopping carts. And so on....

Everyone finished eating at about the same time, except Matthew. Phil, Ian, and Andy M. teased him mercilessly, and applauded when he finished his last bite.

Then the plates were cleared away, and the next course was served. Emma and Deborah and Emmaline had been in charge of the desserts, and had made enough to feed an army. Emma had baked a pavlova, which had risen up to the top of the oven--she had decorated it with a beautiful pattern of strawberries and green grapes in white fluffy whipping cream. Emmaline had baked a real pumpkin pie; Deborah, not particularly fond of pumpkin pie, had baked a chocolate cake with "Pumpkin Pie" written on it in red icing. Rachel and Daphne had bought a tiramisou, which occasioned considerable questioning--no one knew what it was exactly, and Andy M. (who knows everything, apparently) had to explain it to Matthew at least three times, and subsequently teased Matthew about getting tipsy on the coffee liqueur. There was also a dish with cream and fruit, and an enormous cheesecake, courtesy of Emma, decorated with maltesers. And ice cream....

So that was our Thanksgiving meal. Everyone sat quietly when they had finished eating, content and quiet. After a pause, Phil led us in thanking all the girls who'd worked on the meal, then Rachel and Daphne in particular--then me, just for being here (which seemed quite odd). And once that applause had died down, I thanked all of them, not quite sure what to say, for showing me Christ's love and being so generous.

Then the boys all rocketed away to the common room to watch the England vs. Croatia football match, while Rachel turned on the fluorescent lights, and we began the process of cleaning up. Andy M. came in after five minutes, and he helped Emma wash and dry the seemingly-endless heaps of dishes. All three sinks were in use: Linsey and Catherine in the pantry scrubbing away at the greasy baking trays; Andy and Emma washing plates and silverware; Daphne and Deborah soaping out the pots and pans while Emmaline and Rachel put the food away. I wiped off the table, packed up the decorations, and cleaned the floor a little bit, as well as helping to put away the clean dishes.

It only took us about twenty minutes to clean the kitchen--when we were done, it was almost as clean as it had been when I came to Renwick that day back in September.... We all wandered into the common room to watch the last twenty minutes of the match. Daphne and I nearly fell asleep in the corner. But it was very amusing to listen to Phil "interact" with the commentators and make fun of the England coach. Of course everyone was cheering for Croatia, and when England lost, and the English coach sat staring desolately at the "pitch" (soccer field), all the boys laughed. "He's going to get sacked. I'll buy you a paper tomorrow, E--, and you can read the headlines" Phil said gleefully when I made fun of him.

When the match was over, we played games. Deborah split us up into four teams. Andy M., Catherine, and I were on a team together. The first game was a competition to see how fast each team could complete a word search and unscramble a list of scrambled words. Andy M. and Catherine worked on the word search while I decoded the words, and our team won. Then we had a scavenger hunt: Deborah had hidden 45 laminated cards with pictures of turkeys on them all over the house. She had hardly done explaining before we had all burst out the door of the common room, cheering and whooping and making turkey sounds. The house creaked like a ship at sea as we stampeded all over it, looking for the turkeys, which were hidden in various places: inside the kettles in the kitchen; inside the hot presses; behind the curtains; on the top beams of the doors; in the pages of the guest book, etc. In the end we only found 40 of the 45 turkeys, and my team only had 12--Rachel's team found 13, the highest count. The last game was pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin. This turned out to be incredibly good fun. Rachel produced a thick orange tasseled scarf with which to bind the victim's eyes. Emmaline went first. Deborah tied the scarf on her, Emma spun her around, and then (not allowed to touch her) guided her by talking her to the smiling pumpkin man stuck to the wall. Meanwhile, of course, everyone else shouted and made a racket to confuse Emmaline, but it didn't work too well. Next up was Rachel's team, and then my team--and of course Andy M. and Catherine decided that since it was "my day", I had to go. So Catherine spun me round and round, and then talked me over to the wall (despite the yelling of the boys) to put the nose plump on the spot. Linsey, guided by Daphne, was last. After all four teams had gone, we decided to play it again--this time, without any guidance. It had been Phil's idea, so of course everyone shouted for Phil to get up and take the first turn. Deborah tied the scarf round his eyes and put the nose in his hand, and he was off.... We all sat and nearly died laughing. Andy L. and Samuel shouted all sorts of things to confuse Phil, while the rest of us sat and laughed and laughed. Phil made the whole business funnier by staggering around exaggeratedly like a drunken pirate, with the scarf swishing over his shoulders. When he hit the wall, he said, "Alright, let's do some math," and did a ridiculous version of the Pythagorean theorem--he actually managed to get the nose pretty close, by putting his thumbs at the corners of the piece of paper and guessing the distance. After he went, Rachel went. While Deborah was tying the scarf on her, Phil whispered to all of us to get up and switch seats so that she couldn't steer by the sound of our voices--we did it with as little giggling as possible; even so, Rachel, standing shakily in the middle of the room after having been spun, said, "I have a bad feeling that everyone has changed places on me!" She groped toward a softly-upholstered chair and started to feel it for reassurance. "What's this?" she muttered, "Someone's leg?" "Stop, that's my wee brother!" Phil roared, and we all shouted out laughing again. Then Deborah started to call to her, guiding her, and Rachel moved toward the sound of her voice--nearly out the door of the common room, while the rest of us, including Deborah, laughed, until Rachel figured out the hoax. She, too, managed eventually to get close to the nose. Catherine came next. When she had been spun, she was so dizzy that she was actually about as tipsy as Phil had pretended to be. She fell over and lay on the floor laughing; she almost ran into the TV (the boys made a big deal out of that); she crashed over the table; she nearly held Samuel's hand, and she finally blundered her way to the wall, pink with laughter.

After that game, we all settled back with aching sides for Deborah to count up the score. Three teams were tied--we sat and thought about a tie breaker for awhile. Phil suggested that we could get a box of "Big Issues" (the magazines that the beggars sell on the sidewalk) and see who could sell them fastest, which made everyone laugh. But finally we decided that whoever could find the most of the 5 missing turkeys would win. Catherine was the first to find one, and thanks to that (and because it was "my day") we were finally awarded the prize: a bag of Starburst bursts, with a gooey outside and a creamy inside. Catherine. Andy, and I each took one, and then handed it on--the bag made it twice round the room before it was empty.

We were all in much too high spirits to settle down, so we tried to think of another activity. Board games and parlor games were suggested; someone else asked for a DVD; someone else suggested playing hide-and-go-seek outside (but it was raining). So finally we decided to play hide-and-go-seek inside with the lights off. We all put a foot (or a crutch, in Matthew's case) in a circle, and Phil got down on his hands and knees and bounced his hand over our shoes as he ran off some ridiculous rhymes, most of which I'd never heard before, to determine who was going to be "it". The lot fell to Rachel. I said good-night to Andy M., who was going to bed (I had to be thankful--he had obviously been exhausted most of the evening, but had manfully stayed with us the whole time). We turned the lights out and ran, shouting and laughing, into the rest of the house. Emmaline and I hid in our room. I crouched down in the bay window behind the curtains and waited. We could hear Emmaline and Daphne as they came upstairs, laughing and shouting. They burst into Linsey's room next door and found Linsey and Catherine; then came blundering into our room with their cellphones on shouting, "Ha! Found you!" They did find me, and I followed them on the ensuing wild goose chase. Andy L. was hiding behind the sofa in his room, and Samuel was lying on top of their dressers. Emma was in her room, and helped us find Ian, who was out on the fire escape; Phil was in the hot press behind the heater.

Back downstairs again for another round. Andy L. was selected to be "it", and again we all disappeared. I crawled into the cupboard under the stairs and curled up, contented, in the dark. I waited... and waited... and waited.... No noise, no one came. I heard someone coughing beside me in the dark. I was startled until I heard a cellphone buzz and realized that Emma was sitting on the outside under the stairs, by the payphone. Finally I heard Emmaline and Rachel come out of hiding, and a lot of outraged laughter. I crept out of the hidey-hole and found Andy L. and Matthew sitting and watching TV: they hadn't bothered to look for anyone at all...! And to top it all off, Emmaline had never been found from the next round. Rachel and Daphne had been hiding beside each other in the cupboards in the utility room; Samuel was discovered on the topmost shelf of the hot press, etc.

Finally, Deborah, Matthew, Samuel, Emmaline, Catherine, Daphne, Rachel, and I trickled into the common room. We sat around joking and talking. Rachel and Daphne and Catherine sat on the floor; they wanted me to read them a story. They handed me one of the Thanksgiving story books Emmaline had brought up. I flipped through it, pretending to read it, but telling them a ridiculous little tale about three mice (coincidentally named Emmaline, Daphne, and Rachel). Then Deborah took the book. In her best school marm style, she started to read to us, in the same high, fluffy voice a teacher has, asking questions as she went along, and making us put up our hands. Daphne and Rachel poked each other and told random little stories to answer the question, just like certain other small children I know, while Matthew and Samuel pulled faces behind Deborah's back. Catherine and I pretended to be "teacher's pets", while Emmaline grimaced back at the boys. We could hardly contain our laughter, but we all pretended to be little kids while Deborah read severely. Even she couldn't keep from cracking sometimes, though, especially not when Daphne and Rachel got going....

Eventually, Deborah gave up, her classroom misbehaving shockingly. We sat around talking for awhile. I was far too tired to stay awake much longer. Pleasantly full, my sides still aching from all the laughter I'd done this evening, the hyperness from the scavenger hunt and hide-and-go-seek having died down, I went over to Rachel and thanked her for a lovely evening. "Enjoy your American sleep," she laughed at me as I went out the door, and I laughed back. I went upstairs to bed. Emmaline came up shortly after, having apparently been told to enjoy her "half-American sleep" (!). We sat up chatting for a bit before we turned off the lights.

I haven't had that much fun in a long time.... Christ's joy and the fellowship of His people are truly something for which to be thankful!

A Northern Irish Thanksgiving