turkey and all the trimmings

Tonight, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our extended far-from-home family. But in the rush to make everything happen the way we thought it “should,” we sort of forgot about the whole point of the dinner… being thankful. Because even though some days are harder than they should be, we have a lot to be thankful for.

I had signed up to bring two things to the dinner: vanilla cupcakes (to make sure there was a dessert Kaitlyn would eat) and stuffing. Kaitlyn and I had a tough time with the jet lag and my plan to bake the cupcakes yesterday just didn’t happen. We didn’t wake up until nearly 11:30 (and only because the phone rang when Bill called to say he was at the airport)… so our baking got a late start. They got done just in time for Kaitlyn to take a bath and for me to take a shower.

The stuffing should have been a breeze… I’d brought four boxes of Stove Top back in my luggage. Boil water, add stuffing, let sit five minutes. But when Bill went to fix the stuffing while I fixed my hair, the stove went out and turned the 10 minute job into a 45 minute job. No stove top nearly meant no Stove Top! (It takes a long time to heat water in our little microwave.) That’s appliance number two that’s given us problems; thank goodness we chose the house with new appliances so that we wouldn’t have to worry about these things!

Anyway, we finally got the Stove Top done, the car all packed and headed out to the dinner… only 30 minutes late. And as we approached the interstate I looked at the overpass and said “uh, those cars aren’t moving.” An accident had the interstate at a standstill. So we drove through the city. Along with dozens of others making the same detour. Most of the drive was spent discussing how we hadn’t planned wisely and if we had then we wouldn’t be so late. Even with the traffic problems, we got there at about the same time as most people.

I had volunteered Bill to be the official photographer. Which I think had him a little stressed out. He tried wandering around taking pictures, but I made him come back to the table and sit down so that we could eat. Eventually, he got to snap his pictures. After I’d had dinner!

The meal was just like at home… everyone ate too much. There was turkey, stuffing (my Stove Top was a hit), potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, gravy, pumpkin pie.

We never stopped to share our thoughts about what we’re thankful for. I’m thankful that my daughter, husband and family are all healthy. I’m thankful that even though it can be trying, we have this chance to experience life in another country. I’m thankful that I have such a supportive husband. I’m thankful that my brother bought me a Slingbox. I’m thankful that I have such good friends at home and that they haven’t forgotten me just because I’m so far away.

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