We got an invitation from Mathieu and Sara for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We were glad to accept this invite because it had been a while since our last meet. The dinner was at 8. Totof and I went to get some truffles and cheese before taking off. A side thought: BevMo! had good amount of nice cheese.
We arrived as the first couple as the tradition (we did not know why but we always arrived before other guests). Sara and Mathieu gave us a warm welcome. Glad to see them. Sara asked me if I would like to have a cranberry cocktail. Normally I would say no. But this time I said yes due to the holiday atmosphere. Sara took a champagne glass, put 1/3 amount of champagne, and then filled the glass with cranberry juice. After the filling, she put two cranberries inside. The cocktail absolutely looked pretty and Thanksgiving.(we were told cranberry was commonly used for Thanksgiving)
We noticed Mathieu and Sara had a new piano. It was a grand piano. Mathieu did not hesitate to say yes for our ask. Mathieu sit still in front of the piano and put his hands on the keys. Then, the fun began. The first song was performed by pure memory. A nice song with professional performance. Impressive. Then Reda and Julien arrived. Mathieu continued to play some nice songs for us. With the nice piano performance and red theme decoration, the house was filled with holiday atmosphere.
The dinner table was huge. A long table with 11 seats. Guests were Eureka, Julien, Reda, Clara couple, Robin couple, and us. Guests gradually arrived. Greetings and chats were all over the place. Mathieu took a huge tray out. It was a turkey tray. Mathieu disappeared a while and then returned with an apron (it was a blue apron and we teased him of this). Then, the following 10 min all guests were standing around the table and witnessing how Mathieu and the turkey dualed each other. Of course, Mathieu got an K.O. at this turkey thing (so we guests had a nice turkey slice to eat). Sliced turkey meat got laid out nicely on a plate. During the turkey fight, we were chatting with Robin and Sarah (Robin's girlfriend). Everyone got some appetizers: Pate, Blue Bree, Bree, and olives. The Pate was tasty. The cheese was excellent. The olives were of high quality. Other side dishes were subsequently taken out. It looked like we were going to have a feast.
No one could resist the delicious looking dishes. Everyone got a plate and started the buffet like serving. I got some turkey, cranberry sauce, string beans, potato gratin, and bread scrambles. All dishes were traditional Thanksgiving dishes. The sitting was casual. Totof and I sit side by side. I sit across Clara couple (during the serving part, I accidentally discovered Clara was from Taiwan). Mathieu sit on my left side. Lots of fun conversations were here and there. One conversation was about the turkey. Apparently not many people there were fans of turkey (majority were not Americans). Indeed tonight's turkey was good. But, people could not resist to asking this question. Mathieu said he was not a turkey fan either. But since Sara would like to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, they got a turkey. Then, the talking turned to how to clean turkey. We heard the turkey bath story, the turkey package story, and the turkey defrost story. Quite entertaining.
Dinner topics were with no restrictions. We talked fun things, serious things, casual things, and silly things. The dessert part was as good as the dinner. Metieu and Sara served us three deserts: an apple crumble pie, a pumpkin pie, and madeleines. Everyone was amazed by Metieu and Sara's hosting. It was absolutely a wonderful dinner. A wonderful pre-Thanksgiving dinner.
