rthstewart | In which Ruth almost but not quite outs herself

Been there, done that, got the turkey coma (and a search at 11:30 PM last night for a grocery store that was still open and had fresh turkeys to accommodate my swelling gust list. Yes, I cooked 2 turkeys this year as my list went from 7 to 15).

We have a tradition that everyone at the table must identify a book or movie that was moving, interesting, or memorable in some way. Two years ago at Thanksgiving, I went on and on about Roald Dahl and the Irregulars in Jennet Conant's book (and TQSiT was the result). Last year I blathered about the Kladstrup Wine and War book (which I used for Maenad of the Maquis)..

This year, it was gay giraffes, same sex paired albatrosses, and Biological Exuberance and that remarkable wikpedia entry. Apparently I was hilarious and articulate. But really my wine soaked guests had difficulty getting passed the "OMG GAY GIRAFFES?" We were very loud. Good thing the kids were watching Jurassic Park. I consider myself a pretty dull person in real life. It's pretty funny when the stories you tell about the fic you saw in a porn challenge involving Pepsi and Coke and John Major and QE2 are memorable enough that people remember them the following year.

Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. If not, I hope you had a lovely day. I am grateful to all my imaginary friends.

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Not sure about dancing and midnight mass. The main family celebration is nearly always Christmas day, and since it was in Dickens' time as well, I think it's reasonable to assume the same for centuries in between. Community events are more likely to happen a bit earlier. With children around this will involve silly games such as musical chairs or pass-the-parcel.

Food I can help on - I just happen to have, on my cookery book shelves, two books on WWII & rationing. The Ministry of Food realised how important keeping a more-or-less traditional Christmas was to morale, and issued fact sheets with advice on how to manage on tight rations. They even issued extra sweet rations some years (not sure if this includes 1942 or not

The pudding was relatively easy, as it can be made with lots of grated carrot & breadcrumbs (the recipe I use does this - makes it rather less heavy, as the really traditional recipes can be a bit much after turkey). The book which talks most about Christmas adds that raisins were hard to get, and that the Ministry suggested using prunes instead. Another recipe doesn't use breadcrumbs or brandy, does use grated raw potato, and adds that it can only be made a couple of days in advance as it doesn't keep.

Christmas cake was much harder to manage. They encouraged the pooling of resources - the same book gives an example of a teacher who got every child in her class to contribute something (an egg, a little sugar) and managed a cake for an end-of-term party that way. Frosting was extremely difficult, as there was no icing sugar, but could be made with boiled sugar and egg white or powdered milk. "Almond" paste was made out of plain cake crumbs, margerine and almond extract.

The MoF were very keen on making party food that looked good, and other suggestions include open sandwiches topped with colourful raw vegetables & a little sardine, and "gingerbread men" made out of pastry.

Decorations and party hats could made out of odd scraps such as off-cuts of wallpaper.

Once the Americans were over (thank you!) they were frequently invited round to join local families, particularly for important occasions such as Christmas. Much culture clash ensued, and American servicemen were subsequently issued with a leaflet of instructions, including orders to refuse second helpings (apparently some GIs were eating a family's entire week's meat ration at one go, and not realising), and not to criticise the coffee ("okay, so the British can't make coffee. You can't make tea").

If you're able to find a copy of "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942" I think you'll find it very helpful. It's certainly been published over here.

Okay, I'm now raiding Wellinghall's military histories. Apparently the US army decided the best solution to the "eating too much of the rations" problem was to give the host families at Christmas a package containing "fruit or tomato juice, evaporated milk, peas, bacon, sugar, coffee, lard or shortening, butter, rice or available substitutes". When word got out, the number of invitations shot up - 50 invitations for every GI available at Christmas 1942.

Music - yes. All of the above, radio, gramophones, pianos in many homes and pubs.

Thank you both so very, very much.

There's a Neville Shute novel where an American officer (sergeant?) goes into a shop and sees the assistant measuring out food. "Do you have to do that evey day?" "Day? This is for a week!"

Thanks so much to both you and

wellinghall for reviewing the bookshelves and cookbooks and such and for generously sharing your knowledge. It cracks me up to think of the two of you saying, oh look, an imaginary American person is writing fanfiction about things she knows nothing about has questions about Christmas in 1942.

In contrast, while, on the one hand, I did have a detailed and lovely conversation last night over Thanksgiving with a woman who works in bird conversation and energy policy about Laysan albatrosses (while everyone else was laughing at me about the same sex bonding in giraffes), no one in RL knows about the fanfic. I've hidden it behind psudos and such for nearly 20 years.

I've been lobbying for a family trip to the UK in the Spring rather than Rome -- "I want to go to Oxford." "Why?" "Errrr.... dinosaurs?"

Thank you again ever so much.

You are most welcome! :-)

Well, Rome has its fine points as well, I suppose.

Depends when you want to go - early spring Rome probably has the more pleasant climate, late spring Oxford is at its best. You don't want it too hot and sticky for serious sight-seeing, after all, do you?

In which Ruth almost but not quite outs herself

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