Thanksgiving Times Two

Several people asked last week if we were going to celebrate Thanksgiving. Oh did we! Not just once but twice! Being overseas is a great excuse to celebrate an American holiday as many times as possible. :)

Obviously Italy does not take the day off on Thanksgiving, so the kids were in school until 4:30 and the rest of the country was whirling as usual. We did get the day off though, which we spent plucking our turkey and cooking it for our staff team, who all came over for a grand feast.

Though not entirely covered with feathers when we picked it up, there were still a lot that needed to be removed. Oh, and Cody also had to bust out a hammer and chisel to cut off its neck! So worth it though!

Turkey fillets are popular here, but you can only find whole turkeys at Christmas, and they are more the size of chickens. So we ordered one from our butcher. I think they were tickled to be providing a turkey for an American Thanksgiving celebration! Italians know what Thanksgiving is, and their constant impression is of a huge golden turkey being pulled from the oven.

At staff team, and several other American friends we know arrived at 7pm with almost every imagineable sidedish known. Thanksgiving is one of the events for which almost everyone I know imports some special ingredient needed to make a favorite American dish. We had green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole, pecan pie, and corn bread stuffing, among other things, none of which can you find the ingredients for in Italy. I can not tell you how good those American tastes were!!! Yum, yum, yum, yum!

To top it all off, we hooked our SlingBox up to our TV and watched American football during dinner. Truly, it felt like an honest-to-goodness American Thanksgiving. We all had such a great time.

And then on Saturday, we did it again! Our family went out to some friends of ours who are Americans working at Caterpillar just outside of Bologna. We have kids about the same and really enjoy hanging out together. Again, it was glorious. And so good for our kids! It was a great opportunity to talk about a key part of our country's history AND to talk about all we have to be thankful for.

A great Thanksgiving week, even in the midst of dearly missing celebrating the holiday with our families. We are so glad for how God provides, even in the seemingly little things.