HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are so thankful for all our friends and family. The other day we were watching "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and learned that America was the first country to designate an official holiday to give thanks. It just stirs up a little American pride to know that our country is a "thankful" country. We have definitely commercialized it since the days of Samoset and Squanto, but taking a day to celebrate thankfulness is refreshing. As Christians we get the opportunity to celebrate the Giver (our heavenly Father) for the blessings He gives. You are one of those many blessings!

This year Thanksgiving was at our house. We hosted a little over 30 people and it was a ton of fun. The guys started the day with a little American football (played on a soccer field) at 8:30 am and then went home to get cleaned-up and arrived around 11:30 am at our house for food. After eating the traditional Thanksgiving food people with small kids went home for nap time and those who could stay played card games. About 4 pm our friends invited everyone over for a bonfire and we roasted marshmallows for smores. It was a wonderful day and sharing it with friends made it even sweeter.

We did have a bit of adventure the day before. Our friend who bought the turkeys for the meal needed 3 to feed 30 people. The turkeys tend to be a little smaller here than in the states and Justin calls them "marathon runners." So, I needed to cook one of them in my oven too. I have NEVER cooked a turkey before, so I had no idea what I was doing. Good thing our friends gave us step by step directions. Looking back it was actually easier than I thought, but I count my blessings that our friend David was home when the turkey was delivered. In our country they like the taste of neck meat so they leave the neck on the turkey. Our friends told us to cut it off, and that is where the adventure starts. The spinal cord on a turkey is really tough to cut. I had a hard time looking at it in the first place, let alone cutting body parts off of it. This is where David, our 18 year old friend, saved the day. We found a hack-saw in Justin's tools and cleaned it (before and after) cutting off the neck. He has neutered pigs before so cutting a neck off a turkey is nothing :). Good news is that I took pictures of the process so you too can partake of the turkey fun. Yes, in one of the pictures David is getting ready to put the turkey in a trash can (only thing big enough to hold the salt water to soak it in). Don't worry, we cleaned the trash can out with bleach. Gosh this is sounding really bad, but just another Thanksgiving in Africa. Ha. When it was all said and done we had a beautiful, bronzed, tasty, turkey. Ahhh, I love stories with good endings!