Thanksgiving house party planning 2016

A traditional U.S. Thanksgiving holiday meal

The Photo: A traditional U.S. Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, dressing and gravy, green beans cranberry’s and fruit

Best wishes to my U.S readers: I may be just a tiny bit late in wishing my readers in the U.S. a very happy and safe Thanksgiving as some are already traveling to be with family and friends for the holiday to feast and watch parades and football. Even so, I hope everyone has good weather, travels safely and has a great time! (((hugs))) to you all!

Thanksgiving in the UK and U.S.: In the UK Thanksgiving (as a harvest festival) is of ancient origin, but not an official holiday. It is traditionally held on or near the Sunday of the harvest moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox, which this year was September 18^th. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the U.S. on the fourth Thursday in November which this year falls on the twenty-fourth. As I mentioned in a post last year the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, complete with roast turkey, seems to have caught on in the UK, perhaps because everyone likes another holiday.

For those not steeped in U.S colonial history: Thanksgiving in the U.S. is celebrated to mark harvest at the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.  Some would have us think that the first Thanksgiving was held in Massachusetts by the Mayflower Pilgrims who landed in 1620. However, the Mayflower landing was 13 years later than Jamestown.  

House party Planning:  The Super Moon aside (more about that below) I’m looking forward to my Thanksgiving house party at Blackthorn Castle from the 24^th through the 27^th. This year I’m having a Thursday through Monday house party. With a good bit of prior planning dancer friends from the RB will be able to attend as will my wards, Bea, who will come down from Cambridge and two others, Bryony and Claire, from grad school at University College London. I’m pleased to say that they are all bringing boyfriends with them! Too, there will be the usual gentry from surrounding estates and the father and step-mother of Bryony who live in Kent. In all there will be sixteen guest couples which fill the recently fully modernized suites in the new (mid-18th century) wing of the castle.

I’ve approved the menus so we will be having the usual U.S. Thanksgiving holiday fare here at my ancestral home in Wales: roast turkey, stuffing, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans and pumpkin and mince pie. As well as (from my estate) roast tenderloin of wild boar, venison steaks and roast rack of lamb over the course of the several days. One has to limit the size of portions and train extra hard this time of year to prevent gaining weight from all the holidays and heavy meals. But its such fun to have a house full of young people for the Holiday! Cook had asparagus is on the menu; however, I struck it off as it contributes an unpleasant aroma to the urine and genital secretions which many find off-putting.

One can never be sure of the weather here as it comes off the North Atlantic and across the Irish Sea and dumps its moisture as rain in the Cumbrian mountains.  My place is about Latitude: 52°26′59″ N, but the warm ocean current (the Gulf Stream’s northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift) moderates our climate so it is typically not as severe as a city at the same latitude in the U.S might expect. The current forecast is for cloudy but dry weather from the 24 – 28 November which would be lovely if that’s what actually happens! Then the men can go out boar and deer hunting while the girls and I take ballet and Pompoir classes, and gossip about boyfriends and fashion. 

Sex Thanksgiving week: My cycle is on schedule and I became fertile on the 21^st and should ovulate on the day after thanksgiving, the 25^th, so there is no way I will be able to safely take my lover(s) totally unprotected during that time as I did on Halloween. I’ll probably wear a tiny silicone Oves cervical cap screwed down tight on my ripe cervix the entire week as Oves can be worn at any depth during dive-sex. The only drawback with Oves is that you can’t use most silicone lubes – other than the specially formulated DiveGel+ - with it which is needed for dive-sex.

The Super Moon in western Wales: The names of full moons in November are, for the Celts it was a Dark Moon and for the English a Hunter’s Moon. A full moon becomes a super moon when it passes very close to Earth on its obit, making it up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual. The point in the obit of the moon at which it is closest to the Earth is known the perigee. This super moon was particularly large because it was the first time that the full moon has come this close to Earth since 1948. There will not be another super moon as big and bright as this one for 18 years until the next very close orbit in 2034.

Viewing the Super Moon in the Cambrian mountains of western Wales, November 14^th – 16^th was problematic. A Met Office spokesman said: “Monday evening and overnight Monday night is the best chance to spot it in Europe.” Although the sky will be cloudy, he said that there are likely to be cloud breaks in Eastern Scotland, North East England and East Wales. If you want to see the moon as it near the full moon stage, why not also go out and look at the sky tonight? The Met Office said that there could be cloud breaks in the same areas as Monday night, but also possibly in South East England for a while.

Unfortunately for western Wales viewers, it turned out that the Met office was correct. The Cambrian mountains of Western Wales was not a good location to view the Super Moon as there was solid heavy cloud cover where I was… Sigh!