On Thanksgiving day, Robbie's commander had everyone over for a big dinner. There was so much food--three turkeys, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and several types of dessert. It was a lot of fun. The only hitch was our water heater breaking earlier in the day--I had to run to a friend's house to shower before the big party, then Robbie ended up having to drive back to our apartment right before we started eating to meet the guy who was fixing it for us. We ate tons of food, then Michael played on the trampoline with the big kids for a while.
We have a lot to be thankful for this year. The wonderful experiences of living and traveling around Europe, our sweet little family, the friends and family we have back in the US, and the new friends we're making here who are from all over the world. One of the things I'm most thankful for every day is baby snuggles like this:
We had a great time. It was nice to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a big group of Americans and have that little piece of home over the holidays.
I cooked most of the day on Saturday and Sunday to prepare for our second Thanksgiving with the Italians. When we originally asked, our friend said he was familiar with American Thanksgiving and turkey and all that. But when he and his brother came to our house, they said they really only have seen it on TV. Luckily, they were ready to try new foods and brought their appetites. It was like having two Marks for Thanksgiving! They were really impressed by the turkey, which was funny to me because it was only 10.5 pounds. I figured we didn't need a huge one for only four people and I didn't think I could fit one much larger than that in my little oven. It did look pretty though.
As I finished cooking and set everything out, Robbie explained what everything was. We had just about everything--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, applesauce, cranberry sauce, corn, green bean casserole, rolls, and pumpkin pie. The only thing they had tried before was the mashed potatoes and corn.
We had a great time eating and talking. It was a really fun night, and it was cool for us to be able to share a little of our American culture with our Italian friends. I was happy to have cooked them their first Thanksgiving dinner. They stayed for awhile and we talked, were entertained by Michael, then they packed up some trays full of leftovers (because it's not really Thanksgiving without leftovers!) and headed home.
Although it's a little late, Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family back home! We hope you had as wonderful a holiday as we did.
