International Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
This is a picture of me and my neighbors/landlords. Unfortunately, it is out of focus, but I am sharing it with you because it is the only picture I have to offer of Thanksgiving this year!

I prepared my first complete Thanksgiving Dinner EVER for 21 people or so (I never got a head count) and we did not take one picture of my beautiful Turkey or the people enjoying it. I guess that could support the opinion that everyone was too preoccupied with the culinary delights to pick up a camera, or it could just be that it was all too chaotic and no one knew where the camera was. Take your pick...
For those of you who do not live in a country without a Wal-Mart, let me tell you, cooking requires a little more preparation than you may be used to. We are blessed to have a great variety of flavors at our disposal, but just not in a can ready to go. I got to roast my own pumpkin and boil my own cranberries. And fortunately for my guests, every pie crust was made from scratch. The next challenge is getting everything done at the same time in an oven the size of a large microwave. Normally, in the States, you would have everyone bring something and in the end you would have all the trimmings. Well, our guests were from places that don't know what stuffing is and have never even seen a sweet potato. So, I just told everyone to bring their appetites (with the exception of Christine Rasulov's great green bean casserole and Becky Hedgepeth's wonderful deviled eggs and relish tray).
To sum it all up, we had a nice time being grateful for all that we have... great friends, delicious foods, a warm and welcoming home, and, of course, football! (Someone loaned us a tape of an old game. We already knew the outcome, but it wouldn't have been Thanksgiving without it!)