Thanksgiving

The kids and I had Thanksgiving lunch with Luke's school. They provided the turkey (yes, real turkey!) and all the fixings.

After trying to get my very picky eaters to feast on the food, I finally gave up and headed to the playground. Luke created a new way of using the swings. Take a look!

After the kids played for awhile, we went home to get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. We ended up losing power that afternoon while I was preparing dinner. However because we have a gas stove, I was able to get everything prepared. Most days I curse our little oven, but now I have to change my tune. I am grateful for the small gas oven we have and that I can still prepare food for our family when the power goes out. (As a side note, we lost power 3 times last week for several hours at a time. I am getting pretty good at cooking by candlelight.)

Our Thanksgiving dinner guests were the Lynn family, Adrian, Matt, Tom and our little family gathered together. Susan helped provide the stuffing, grilled chicken, gravy and pineapple upside down cake. Adrian brought his awesome mashed potatoes and I cooked the fried chicken (it's Great Grandma Fife's fried turkey recipe just with chicken), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls and pumpkin pie. It was truly a feast!

I just wanted to thank all the moms and grandmas out there in our lives that have worked so hard over the years to provide Thanksgiving feasts. I had no idea you worked so hard! Between trying to plan everything just right so that all dishes are warm and then the clean-up, this is a meal that requires so much work. Thank you all for making all of our past Thanksgivings so wonderful.

We are so grateful for all our family and friends. We have been so blessed as a family this past year and our hearts are full of gratitude for all that we have received. Our time in Dominica has opened our eyes as to how rich we really are in blessings and for that I am most grateful.