Thanksgiving in Bondal

I just sent this in an email and then figured - if I'm going to write blog posts, I might as well post them! Enjoy :D
Let me tell you about our Thanksgiving in Bondal. An American friend of ours who was a student at Rauland moved to Bondal with her baby and boyfriend. Bondal is a tiny little collection of houses at the end of a very long road (there are now ten people, including the baby, who live there). David and I visited in September and were charmed by how relaxing it was to not be at home, even for a couple days. I suggested that we have Thanksgiving in Bondal. As the time between September and last week went by, this idea grew and grew in our friend's mind. She wanted to share Thanksgiving with her new community and, since she teaches music at the local school, got the green light to give a presentation complete with taste tests. She started by inviting all of her American friends in Norway; when they couldn't come she invited everyone who lives in Bondal and all of her boyfriends family. For good measure, she tacked on people who had been especially kind to the baby. This was all well and good until ALL OF THEM said yes. We had adjusted the date for our Thanksgiving to the day before Thanksgiving in the US for practical reasons. When we arrived at the house on Tuesday night with two medium sized turkeys and fixings for four pumpkin pies, I was shocked to find out that we would be providing dinner for 40 people (including kids). My friend had thankfully imported her mother in-law from Østerdalen, who had arrived the day before and was comfortable cooking all day for three days straight.
The presentation at the school went off almost perfectly; I probably wouldn't have had them play tug-of-war inside. The kids liked the food and were polite about not liking it. The teachers were enthralled. Then we got home and put the turkeys in the oven for dinner. I crashed and took a much need nap, while my friend worked herself up toward a panic attack and her mother in law and boyfriend held steady with the preparations. Everything was pretty much ready at 6pm, except for the green beans because I had forgotten them. David and I were the last to arrive at the old school house at the end of the driveway. When I walked in, I understood what all of the fuss was about from the night before. There was no way that building was designed to hold 40 people! But we crammed ourselves in.
I stood by the buffet to help explain the mysteries of mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberries, stuffing, and turkey gravy to a never line of Bondal relatives and friends. After a while I realized that it was never ending because they kept getting up to refill their plates! I took that as my cue to get my plate and load it up. Everything was tasty, but my pumpkin pie was the kind that I dream about. The crust was perfect and the filling had just the right balance of spices and sugar. Add whipped cream and the fact that pumpkin pie is possibly my favorite food and all of the stress from the previous two days was suddenly worth it, both in the magic taste of that pie and all the happy faces in the room. After dessert and coffee we managed to clear a tiny little corner of the room for dancing - how often do you get to combine Thanksgiving with telespringar played in family tradition?
The real downside is that David and I managed to bring the stomach flu back to Rauland in addition to all of our leftovers. We are recovering, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning, but it was definitely not a fun way to spend the weekend. Fortunately, the giant pot of turkey soup I made has been in the our super-freezer also known as our outside stairwell. The temperatures here have been in the single digits (F) and that is definitely colder than usual for this time of year.
The upside is that we had a great time, in spite of the stress and have a better idea of how to approach next year's event.