Had A Bad Day

So it was the ultimate improv...

We knew that we were going to have to be a bit creative this year in France with Thanksgiving. We thought that we were going to have friends of ours from London for the long weekend (not a big holiday in England) but because of a change in employer they had passport/visa issues and could not leave the country. Then, we then got invited to a dinner with with some of our American friends but thought that they were celebrating on Saturday (since it is not a holiday for anyone here). So we decided to invite Ellie's school friends, Noah and Owen, and their parents over; Amy (an American whose has been here for 13 years and has given up on T-day celebrations years ago) and Gil (her French husband who has never celebrated Thanksgiving -- why would he?).

Now we needed a turkey. With poultry farms all around shouldn't be a problem, right? We talked to various friends who gave increasingly pessimistic responses ("maybe you could just get two big capons" was my favorite). Finally, we just walked into a butcher in Uzes and plowed right into trying to request a turkey. After the typical tortured exchanges, we concluded that we could order two half turkeys and they would be here in time but a full turkey, no no, that would take much longer. Unable to impress upon the kind bloodstained man that simply handing me the bird BEFORE he cut it would be less work for him, we thanked him, took his card, and left. In a last desperate attempt, we asked Amy, Noah and Owen's mom, if she would call and try to convince the man to leave the cleaver in the drawer. After a thirty minute debate, she prevailed and we were the proud owners of a 90 dollar, 16 pound, farm fresh American-style turkey.

Everything seemed in order UNTIL Amy & Gil had to cancel that day because Owen had been sick for 4 days with a 103 degree fever and the other American celebration got changed to Thursday and we had already uninvited ourselves because we thought we had plans.

So, OK, just the 4 of us. No problem - just lots of left overs.

Dinner was late and neither of the kids ate much. Lance only got through half of his plate because he had been feeling sick all day but I liked it and we were together. We put the kids to bed by 8:30 and began the clean up to only be interrupted by a scream from Ellie who was throwing up in her bed. And so it went, throughout the night. Multiple towels, clean-ups, changes of clothes for Ellie and ME, loads of laundry that had to be hung on the line to dry and hours later ALL were asleep. Luckily Cole slept through much of it, as did Lance since he was sick too and I needed him healthy for the rest of the weekend.

After the first throw-up episode Lance concurred that, yes, this is definitely The Worst Thansgiving We've Ever Had.

"The Sick Ward." Lance and Ellie asleep 1pm on Friday.