Thanksgiving Blessings

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We had dinner with family from my mom's side. About 40 people is my guess. We had it at our church which works out very well. We did the same thing last year and the power went out for about two hours that morning. This year it went out the night before. Anyway, every family brought several dishes so I think we could have fed about 40 more people, if not more.

I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We laughed a lot and talked about old times, drooled over all the desserts. I can't tell you the array of pies and cakes we had. And out of all of it... only 1 pumpkin pie. We did have a pumpkin cheesecake which Jenni made. Yummm-E!

One of the traditions my mom's cousins has is very interesting to me for some reason. They bring the sale papers and pore over them before dinner. They map out a game plan and decide where they're going, when and in what order. I think it's pretty smart if you're brave enough to face the madness. My friend Sandra, went with a friend at 2:30 in the morning. It's not for me, but to each his own.

I think the hightlight of my immediate family's day was getting to talk to my baby sister, Joe Joe. I call her my baby sister because she's 10 years younger than me. She's actually a beautiful young woman, married to a wonderful man. They are in Zambia, Africa right now. They're in the middle of missionary training, about to take on Swahili. They'll be in Morogoro, Tanzania when they've finished. They'll be there for about 2 years. They left for Africa in October and for the past 25-30 days have been unable to correspond because of their location. So getting to talk to them on Thanksgiving was a great blessing. It was so good to hear her voice and know that she's safe. Michael was having a great time in the background playing volleyball and admiring the 4" beetle given to him by some of the children. I know they're anxious to settle in to their new home and begin their ministry. Right now they're having some technical difficulty-securing a car, meeting with trainers, that sort of thing. I think they're having a wonderful time and are really seeing the world in a different way. If you're interested, you can keep up with them on their blog at goodbyeharan.blogspot.com.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as special as mine.