Last year Dave worked on Thanksgiving and, although I made the full meal, it didn't feel too much like Thanksgiving. So this year I asked Dave to take the day off and that was nice. Plus, I really needed the help since it was a busy, busy day!
I kept Davey home from school as well, but he had a field trip that I didn't want to make him miss. They were going to the Waqif Souq, a fruit and vegetable market, that is right down the road from us so it worked out well to have Dave bring him there to meet the Kindergarten classes.
Davey's class at the souq
When they returned, we all headed to our friends', the Kings, home for some Thanksgiving crafts and fun. Nonnie read a story about the first Thanksgiving and had several fun crafts...
Making necklaces, feather hats and painting vests
Grocery stores around here only have plastic bags (one time I saw paper, but things like that are fleeting) but I knew of a restaurant who delivers their take-out in paper bags, so we both ordered from Nu Asia one night and asked for extra bags and they didn't mind our request. The bags were used for making the vests. They are cute.
The boys enjoyed playing croquet and Davey, in his typical style, was making sure they had everything set up just right and followed all the rules correctly.
There was even a Turkey Bowl game (of dodgeball, however)....
Happy Thanksgiving!
Then it was time to head home to finish up our big meal. Our church District Conference was being held here the next day, and since Dave attends the District Presidency meetings (via webcam) as the clerk and is the only one living in Bahrain, we were asked to host to members of the presidency and their families for Thanksgiving dinner - and Elder Pieper, the General Authority. Talk about pressure! Of course I knew no one would judge me or have expectations but I definitely felt stress about it.
I didn't have to worry about dessert or rolls, which definitely helped, but I was throwing in a new stuffing recipe and needed to make sure I could handle making all the dishes, plus I wanted to have a Thanksgiving dinner with people of my choosing (not that I wasn't happy to do the second one), so we did a pre-Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before with the Harris' and Youngs. Somehow pulling it off on Saturday was much more relaxed than the on actually on Thanksgiving, though we did take 2 hours out to go to the Kings but I prepared many of the dishes the days before the 2nd meal and had done it all on the day of for the 1st. Oh well, it turned out well. I had a little hiccup when I asked my housemaid to rinse and dry the pumpkin I planned to use as a vase for my centerpiece and she started peeling it... it was the perfect pumpkin and they are hard to find here, but Dave found me a couple small squashes that morning at the souq that worked just fine.
The Prices, Phipps and Elder Piper
(If Dave had taken my maiden name we'd fit in better with this group ;-)
Their kids
Our silly little ones
The dinner conversation was quite interesting and afterward we did the traditional "what I'm thankful for" and added feathers to our Thankful Turkey.
It was a really neat experience to get to host a General Authority in our home. He was so kind and accessible - the kids totally treated him like a member of the family, jumping all over him and asking him to tickle torture them.
I certainly couldn't have pulled this off with a 5 month old without having my housemaid. Especially since my dishwasher broke on Saturday... I'm quite sure Aysha never wants to see my kitchen again (I'd rather not for a while either). Even with the help, it was still tough but worth it! I am thankful for experiences I'd likely not get living in the U.S.!
