Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving Day has been great!

The kids, Myles and I got the house ready and cooked all morning. I would not be able to make a whole turkey for two reasons. A whole turkey would not fit into my tiny little oven. And my oven has two settings: very hot and off. So I bought turkey breasts. I roasted them in my roaster. I have never seen anything like this roaster in the US. When I first got here I looked high and low for a crock pot. I believe my crock pot is the thing that I miss the most from my own kitchen. We generally use it a lot in the wintertime at home. Anyway, I could not find a crock pot anywhere, but they had these roaster things. So I bought it and was not too thrilled because the meat I made in it was not very tender, certainly not like a slow cooker meal. So I decided to try to roast the turkey breasts inside the roaster inside cooking bags. Well I could not find any cooking bags but they did have some seasoning mixes that came with roasting bags. So I got the bags (with some seasonings to use at a later date). I was very pleased with how well that worked and the turkey turned out yummy!

We made stuffing thanks to a secret family recipe given to me by a friend from home. Hopefully the McBride family in PA will never learn that security has been breached! We also had green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. I could not find any pumpkin here so I just bought a cake from the grocery store freezer. It is chocolate and unlike Ben's birthday cake, it was overwhelmingly approved! We had our friend Jennifer over for Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon and we had a very nice visit.

Here are some things that I am thankful for today (and every day):

-Our four healthy and happy children

-My fabulous and brilliant husband who is a little (ok, a lot) more adventurous that I am. He initiates most of our exciting excursions. And his genius is what allowed us to make this journey to begin with.




-The British International School of Gdansk...that was all Myles' idea and one of the smartest things we have ever done...ever!











-This adorable little house we are living it, and the sweet owners (and their family) who live right behind us. Our landlord took a risk agreeing to rent it to foreigners sight unseen. Their son Karol interprets for us and we are happy that they have become our friends.

-Myles' colleague Magda. We would have been lost without her.

-Meeting new friends from all over the world; truly amazing

-The public transportation system here. It has been two months since I have driven!

-The experience of living in a different country where we are the ones who don't know the language

-The experience of traveling many new places

-Our many friends in Olathe who keep us up to date on school happenings, how our house looks, Prince of Peace news, etc

-Facebook, as we have reconnected with many old friends this past year

-Email, which makes it easy to keep in touch and to keep up with everything going on at home.

-Everyone at home who is helping us out while we are gone: from handling our mail to making sure things get deposited to handling problems that come up to taking Myles' car for a spin to taking care of our cat (and spoiling her rotten!)

We have much to be thankful for!

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