Thanksgiving dinner was a delight. They served turkey, mashed potatoes (real ones not the instant kind they normally serve), candied yams (freshly made), stuffing and the ubiquitous gravy. The students all had a great time in the Long Gallery. It was a delightful evening that generally made up for the fact that we had classes during the day. Thanksgiving, after all, is an American celebration (and Canada – but on a different day).
The week after Thanksgiving the Harlaxton Players, a student group, presented a delightful evening of Shakespeare vignettes and one play about Shakespeare. These students were for the most part in Dr. Snow’s Shakespeare class. They did a marvelous job. They were very talented and very professional. My favorite snippet was from The Bard’s Gildencranse and Rosenstern. I had not seen the play nor I fear had I read the play. It very well may have been assigned to me in a class at some point but….
Christmas dinner was the next big affair. The students who participated in the “Meet a family” program invited their families to come. Dinner was a long buffet filled with meats, breads, cheeses, desserts and sundry other items to explore. Tables were set up all over the public rooms of the Manor and it each place setting was a British Christmas tradition called a “Popper”. This is a tube (smaller and wider than a paper towel tube) that is wrapped in Christmas paper with both ends twisted (imagine a giant tootsie roll. Two people grab the ends firmly and pull. The center has a tiny firework that makes a pop similar to one of the old “Cap Guns.” The paper tears away and inside is a tiny little plastic toy (usually an animal that if you use your imagination you can figure out the species), a paper crown type hat that many people wore the rest of the evening, and a small piece of paper with a very corny riddle or joke.
Q. “How do you get down from an elephant?”
A. “You don’t. You get down from a duck.”
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