A Nice Cuppa

 As if Thanksgiving were not enough work?

Thanksgiving and thank goodness for our pets! Dogs decked out in bow ties had high tea at Oxo Tower on London’s South Bank to launch the Tea Party campaign for The Blue Cross.  “This dapper dog, Romi, a Hungarian Vizeli, demonstrates the manners of an English socialite at the Blue Cross high tea fund raiser for pet charities. The Blue Cross campaign was urging animal lovers to hold a tea party with family, friends and work colleagues, to raise money for pets chariteas. Almost a thousand animal-lovers signed up to support the campaign including people in Italy and Japan.” That is the UK for you, according to the B.B.C.

I remember one Thanksgiving year, we had a German Shepherd named “Snow.” We also had a tiny dog named “Peanut,” who was almost a chihuahua. Peanut didn’t cause much trouble like Snow did when he tucked into our Thanksgiving treats.  I just am glad he did not try to make a run for the bird! 

Thanksgiving at our house was a pretty big ordeal. Folks like my Dad, who grew up with all the influences of Louisiana, really know how to roll up their sleeves and use some “elbow grease,” What is elbow grease, I used to ask? My Mom would just say, “You’ll find out when you grow up, for now, finish chopping all that celery for the stuffing.” Now I know it means “the essence of hard work!”

I was the very youngest and I really didn’t get to do much and I was always dreaming of the day I would grow up like Fumiko and the beanstalk and get to baste the turkey like a golden egg. As it were, I got to hang out with Peanut and Snow and we just got to go crazy and smell all the wonderful scents of the pies baking.

My Dad made sweet potato, not rude potato he would say. He baked fresh German bread somehow. I don’t know where that idea came from, but it was made from scratch with all the trimmings. He made apple pies, peach/apricot pies(from our garden), homemade powder sugar shaken, jelly filled donuts and the best lemon meringue pie in the world. You could pretty much get me to do anything for an extra slice, even if it meant just eating pie crust till 4pm, until the feast was served.

We had an enormous turkey and by the time Christmas slid in, our Louisiana relatives made a goose, a duck and another turkey! Us kids pretty much lived on pie crust scraps till 4pm, so as not to spoil our appetites. Sounds harsh but you see my Dad cooked for days in advance and there was not a hungry moment until Thanksgiving day. The marathon was to wait until the magic 4pm and gorge until you fainted.

Well… Snow, the brilliantly white furry warrior, did not like this idea at all. He found out just where the lemon meringue pie was being cooled one year and while no one was looking he stuck his elfen ears, pink nose, long snout and ate and ate until he was filled. He just about had the whole pie tin wrapped around his head with a hole in it like he was a sci-fi Shakespeare Chewbaka with a pie tin crown. The time came and my Dad scowled, “Ok, who stole the pie?” We were munching bits of cinnomon, ginger, allspice and sugar covered bits covered of baked pie dough in a shape of a crown. My Dad was in a frenzy! We swore up and down we did’nt steal the pie. Well out came Snow with a pie tin stuck on his head, smug as can be. The mystery was solved. He sat there licking his chops as if to say “Now what about A Nice Cuppa Tea!”  We laughed and laughed, for there were plenty of other pies and cakes, but that year Snow had his pie and ate it too! Then out came Peanut….. What about me?  I want my treats and Yo Quiero A Nice cuppa tea!

Photo credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

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