Thanksgiving Wednesday AND Thursday

THANKSGIVING WEDNESDAY

The very hardest thing about coaching in Europe for me is the time away from my family. It is even harder this season because I won't being enjoying the meal at Casa Contreras in San Marino for the first time since my days at the University of Washington.

How to cope?

Pilgrims in Lyon?

I was able to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday with new friends, meet even more new friends and keep my mind from wandering around the world thanks to the very generous offer by Falcons' TE Geoff Moulton and his lovely wife Aline to join his family for the holiday feast.

Geoff's parents, Keith and Karen, are Americans who have been living in France for years due to Keith's career as a pastor. Geoff was born in France but sounds 100% American to me when he speaks English and 100% French when he speaks French.

His family started celebrating Thanksgiving on the day before the traditional American Thursday date because when the children were in elementary school in France they did not have school on Wednesdays. Thus, rather than pull them out of school, they just made Thanksgiving the latest French movable feast.

It makes sense to me.

Aline and Karen Moulton

They get along famously as you can see.

The actual setting for the dinner was the downtown site of Keith's church. Besides the Moulton clan, several of the family's friends were there as well as a group of people from Canada who had come to Lyon volunteering their time and labor skills to help physically improve Keith's church.

LET THE FEAST BEGIN!!!

This is Geoff on the lower right

Yet another diet ruined!

Fully sated and a half a kilo heavier on Thursday morning's weigh-in, I must say that this nicest of American-Lyonnais feasts was GREAT!!!

Merci beaucoup to Keith, Karen, Geoff and Aline for being such marvelous hosts and people!

So I had food and friends, now it was time for . . .

Football!

At 6:00 p.m., it was time for the Cadet practice to be followed at 8:00 p.m. by the last Junior workout before their season opener this Saturday.

The Four Important Fs of Thanksgiving:

Food . . . check!

Friends . . . check!

Football . . . check!

Family . . . in just 19 more days!!!

THANKSGIVING THURSDAY

Hey, that IS a Ferris wheel
on Place Bellecour!

The home of the AVF Club

This is Lyon's club for people who hail from all over the world who are now living in Lyon.

Today was designated as American Food Day, so I joined two lovely ladies to try a treat the club members to a taste of our home land.

Vivian making her INCREDIBLE
Cranberry Mousse

Les Chefs, My Companions
in Cuisine, Vivian and Mary

Our setup was ready for the club

Mary's bagels and cream cheese to the left of the flag and my salsa, thanks to Laurie's recipe, in the foreground.

AVF about to attack

She is going for the "EN FUEGO"
bowl of salsa!

I made a large bowl of mild salsa and a much smaller one of the spicy salsa. The AVF club really liked the "EN FUEGO" salsa a lot more than I anticipated.

After about two hours of grazing and chatting, it was time to hit the road. I think that our efforts were a great success.

Want to go skiing?

The French Alps are nearby and several of the ski resorts set up this little area in downtown Lyon to promote people to come to their resorts.

Man made Snow

A Wild Boar sort of . . .

Urban Sharpshooting

It looked delicious

VERY delicious indeed!

I like pandas

A Bridge on the River Rhône

Cool Trident

An Autumn day in Lyon

Reflection

Football practice on Thanksgiving
Thursday is ALWAYS a good thing! 

I was thankful for and excited by the effort tonight by two of our linemen at practice, Frank "Buddha" Lucas and Joel Tchibozo. They were both special in their own ways tonight.

I'm very proud of them.

Our defense really had a great night again this evening.

Houston at Detroit

The traditional Turkey Day game from Detroit was on ESPN America when I got home from practice. I turned it on just a few plays before the Texans kicked the winning field goal in overtime.

Now it is the Redskins thumping on the Cowboys in game two of Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AMERICA!

 Time to call Casa Contreras in San Marino.