Giving Thanks.

Thanksgiving weekend we hosted two dinner parties, and attended another. For one of those parties Spencer tried to find cream to make mashed potatoes. It was slightly difficult, because we didn't know the word for cream, and forgot to look it up before we left for the store. Once we got there, he started asking every person that walked by the particular aisle. I suspected it would go badly, because just the night before he had tried to get strangers to take a picture of us in front of an outdoor Christmas tree, and all ten people that walked by said no. Thankfully this time, the second person that came by a. knew English, and b. was willing to help us find the right kind of cream. We told her why we wanted it, and she said, "Ah, Thanksgiving!" and then asked us if we were making turkey. We weren't, but I liked that she knew the custom. Instead Spencer bought three little hams and made mashed potatoes. I made multiple pies, and friends (from multiple places) brought some other things to share. All in all, it was a delicious and lovely evening.

One of the best parts was the requisite, "go around the room and say what you are thankful for" part, and as per Spencer's family tradition, each person said two things. Sadly, I only remember one of Spencer's, which had something to do with the fact that we were sealed in the temple. I had a lot of things to be grateful for, because miracle of miracles, our long last package had just arrived, approximately five months between the time we sent it from America and received it in Europe. The package was pretty beat up, but intact. From the stamps and stickers we could see that it had also had quite the adventure, spending time in New York, Germany and elsewhere before making its way to Vienna, Austria. The day we received it felt better than Christmas--to have things we cherished (and could keep us warm) returned again, when we thought that they were lost forever. We were both so giddy and so grateful. My second gratitude item was simply that we were/are both still alive, which with our fairly recent circumstances is a pretty big gift indeed. Lastly, we followed one more of Spencer's family's traditions, and built Apple Turkeys. (See picture below, and guess which one is mine.)