Thanksgiving 2008

Hard to say which turkey's the cutest! Especially if you haven't eaten one in over a year!!!
The kids painted the placements so that our Thanksgiving table would be as beautiful as Gramma's and I tried to imitate Poopa's garnishing, but that didn't go so well.

OK! You may have been up at 4 AM hitting the biggest sales, but we were relaxing at the pool and beach while you waited in line!!

Now that's what I call a dog pile.

GI hope the irony of a dog wearing a Hello Kitty shirt wasn't lost on you.

Well, I know that our first year was up in October, but I didn't really take the time to reflect until this month. I was thinking of the things that I am thankful for. Of course images of you flashed through my mind first, but then came images of faces here. As usual I am most thankful to God for salvation and a way to walk in right relationship with Him. Secondly I am thankful for so many people that he's put in my life. Our list of great family, great in-laws, great friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and those I so hope will be brothers and sisters in Christ by this time next year is huge!!! This year I was thankful for something strange, though, and that was a newfound ease in our new home. Now I won't try to tell you that we hopped off the plane and felt instantly at home. This has been a long rewarding year of learning language, culture, and just understanding this city. There have been times of great joy and deep grief. We've been sad at times that life goes on without us where you are, but ever so grateful for the opportunities to love and live with those here. Our God is good! The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord!

As you can see from the pics we found a turkey for the festive day last week. Actually we got 2. The missionary families here in our city got together to thank the Lord for all of the blessings he's given us. Please ask me how thankful I was as I finished doing the job of pulling the guts out of the turkey. Now I know you all think you have life hard defrosting your turkey and then extracting a little nice neat packet of things you can either put in gravy, give to the dog or toss. Unfortunately the insides of my turkey were neither packaged nor neat. Well, I guess they were neat if you consider the precise location God put them as neat. I kept thinking to myself, "If this turkey is not wonderful tomorrow, I am going to be furious!" Every comment any missionary ever made about tough, dry turkey ran through my head as I finished my task. Thankfully enough for all involved, the turkey was indeed wonderful. I think I even liked it better as turkey sandwiches later on! By the end of the meal I was joyously stuffed!

Even though it was an American celebration rather than an African one, we had three African friends that also joined us for lunch. Whether or not they thought the food was bizarre they ate along with us and we all laughed and enjoyed our time together.

We spent Friday at the beach/pool, which is one advantage to living where it is HOT! Any day of the year can be a beach day.

I've got more to write, but I'll save that for our other pictures.
Love to all,
Heather