Every year, I forget how very much I love Thanksgiving, and this year was no different :) Granted, it was the first Thanksgiving dinner I ate outside, and although the sweat dripped off my face and the air closed in without the slightest breeze, the sound of laughter and chatter in various languages truly made me realize just how blessed I am. God has been so good to me, and His mercies truly are new every morning!! And among those many blessings is the opportunity to spend this holiday season here in the Philippines :D I am loving every minute, and I hope you enjoy these pictures from our Thanksgiving celebrations :)
We started out the day with lots of food preparations - bread was dried out for stuffing...
...potatoes were peeled...
...and, of course, good-old honest-to-goodness Butterball turkeys were defrosted :D
Our awesome kitchen ladies!!! <3
All stuffed and ready to go!! :)
Rachelle and I walked down the street to the flower market in the morning and I had just a little too much fun ;) The prices were amazing - we got all the flowers for table arrangements plus all the foliage for decorations for under 10 US dollars!!!
Everyone did such a great job cleaning and helping out!
We all had fun with the feathers ;)
But of course, we could never have pulled it all off without Izzy's supervision :D
All finished!!
Our first guests arrived...
The students from the center put on a rousing rendition of the first Thanksgiving for us - I haven't laughed so hard in a long time ;)
They did a great job :D
And these are the pictures I find on my memory card :D <Someone> obviously stole my camera for a bit ;)
Oh it was such a fun night - so great to spend time celebrating with friends of all nationalities!!
And continuing on some rich Thanksgiving traditions, we had a wonderfully relaxing Friday decorating for Christmas :)
We had fun with the leftover flowers :D
Aren't the poinsettias absolutely ravishing? ;P
Later on in the afternoon, we dug out some scrap paper and scissors and made some snow :) Hey - it's the only thing 'white' about Christmas that I'll see this year!!! :D
What would we do without Izzy? ;)
We also played endless rounds of nertz, which is basically a version of Dutch Blitz. BUT if you are used to calm, peaceful, family games of Dutch Blitz, you'd be in for a shock as these kids are vicious!!! LOL - if I make it home with all my limbs and appendages in tact it will have been a good trip ;)
Bananagrams was also a hit :D
And with that, my friends, the holiday season has officially begun :D Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving!!
Bex <3
