Happy Thanksgiving!

Because we are going to Indiana for Thanksgiving, we hosted three of our four international "kids" last Sunday for a Thanksgiving meal. I was pretty excited about cooking, despite the fact that I spent ALL WEEKEND IN THE KITCHEN!!!! It was worth it, though. Chinami (Japan) is only here for one year, and she had never had a Thanksgiving meal. Shirlie (China) hadn't had a Thanksgiving meal before either. (We didn't get to it before we went to KC last year, what with Chris's funeral. Last fall wasn't a good one.) And it was Inwook's (Korea) last Thanksgiving in the U.S. Next year he will return to South Korea to fulfill his two year military requirement. So as we went around the table to say what we were thankful for, they were all very happy to be experiencing this bit of American culture. It was nice to share what we were all thankful for...family, friends, the extreme good fortune of a stable job, the luxury of being able to put on a Thanksgiving feast, and of course, the cat. The turkey was a bit dry, in my opinion. But it's only my third-ish turkey.

No sweet potatoes, because I don't like the traditional Thanksgiving prep (marshmallows??!! more sugar? gross!!). One of these years, I will work up some good, spicy sweet potato dish. Mark's stuffing, of course...my personal favorite. The best part...we'll have leftovers!!!

The evidence...

Proud Mama

Got an email today that M3 is invited to an Honor Band for beginning band students in February! It's been so cool to hear her improve on the saxophone! And I still don't have a photo, because I only have a photo on my phone, and I really don't know how to get the pictures off my phone, which stinks because I also have a bunch of pictures from the Des Moines sculpture garden on there. Oh well...