Thanksgiving Day

Celebrating Thanksgiving abroad is actually kind of fun.  It feels like we're taking our own secret holiday - which is sort of true.  We decided to do a dinner on Thanksgiving (instead of on Friday or Saturday) and to have some of our American friends over.  

I was so grateful that we'd be joining forces with our friends, the Hunters, in food preparation.  We were handling Turkey (yes, it deserves a Capital "T"), mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie bars.  

Holiday meal preparation takes some special preparation and sleuth skills here.  Canned pumpkin is virtually impossible to get at a normal grocery store. Thankfully, when my dad visited in October, he brought some with him at our request.  Pecans - also difficult to find, but I had some secured away from a special they had at our local grocery store.  Turkeys - You can get turkeys here, but they're not your giant Butterball size.  So, we had to get two.  

Oven size presents another difficulty.  Fitting these two turkeys in our oven took some MacGyver-type skills.  This leaves NO room for stuffing, green bean casserole, etc.  Thankfully Stacey tackled the other oven stuff.

In our families, it's tradition for the Men to do the Birds.  

On this, I'm a Traditionalist and totally committed to gender roles.

As wonderful as a normal American Thanksgiving dinner is what makes it wonderful is having the company of great friends join us in the celebrating.

Sarah, me, Kathryn, Stacey & Bria

The Hunters & Beilmans... partners in crime :)

Yeah - we're doing our part on the birthrate.  All the kids.  

 full table, full tummies, full hearts

Continually thankful to God for His continued Goodness & Love.