Happy Thanksgiving from Joan

Hello, everyone!

As the newest member of the Mars household, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I'm Joan The Mouse:

I'm living in the upstairs bedroom, and I have to say that I'm very pleased with the accommodations. The room is spacious and warm, and the furry thing with the teeth who also lives here leaves behind plenty of crumbs for me to eat. The two fur-less ones that live here have been cleaning up the crumbs far too thoroughly and far too often, in my opinion, but I'm sure they can't possibly get all of them every single day, so I'm sure I will be fine. I plan to stay forever.

It's certainly a fun place to live. I miss my mouse friends -- the tall fur-less one has figured out how we were getting in (again) and blocked up the holes (again) -- but this week, there was some sort of occasion, and two other fur-less ones came over and spent the day cooking and laughing.

The ones who live here put together a festive centerpiece of flowers, a small pumpkin, and, just for fun, a turkey made out of a toilet paper roll and scraps of paper and ribbon:

The cooking smelled wonderful. I was greatly disappointed that they cleaned up so well. I missed out on pistachios that were perfectly toasted for the salad:

I also missed out on this incredible fish that the small fur-less one made:

Didn't get a single bite of these delicious roasted brussels sprouts & home-pickled garlic:

And these beautiful cheesey chivey Yorkshire puddings! Again, not even a morsel left for me. Sigh. Here they are, straight from the oven:

And then seconds later, in their deflated, dense, most delicious state:

Other things I missed out on: homemade saag paneer (spinach and Indian cheese) and mini-papadum (a type of Indian cracker), sweet pickled limes, and mashed potatoes. Here's the whole tantalizing dinner, laid out beyond my reach:

For dessert, the small fur-less one made a special German layered poppyseed flour cake called a mohnkuchen. The strawberry-cardamom-vanilla jam that went between the layers was homemade by the special fur-less guests. And of course, there was fresh whipped cream:

I wish I could have gotten as close to that cake as that fake turkey did. 

Even though I didn't get to have any, I'm sure it was absolutely delicious, judging by the excited babbling of the four fur-less ones and the great interest of the furry one. Everyone seemed to have a great time.

The next morning, the small fur-less one was at it again, making cheese-filled croquettes with the leftover mashed potatoes for breakfast, along with these perfect biscuits:

Again, much to my disappointment, the cleanup after the meal was thorough, so I can't tell you first hand whether any of it was good. The babbling sounded positive, though, so I guess it was.

Well, I have to sign off for now -- I need to get over to the closet to nibble on some sweaters. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy occasion, as well, and I hope you all left more crumbs out for your mice than these jerks did.