Thanksgiving Traditions Away From Home

Yesterday our team (Beth, Ken, and I) celebrated Thanksgiving together. Although we were a small group, we enjoyed many of the traditions that I associate with Thanksgiving (food, games, and being thankful). I have so many things to be thankful for (a place to live, loving family, a great team, good friends, two countries that I love, a great job, around 800 children to play with, and so much more)

We spent the entire day preparing and eating lots of yummy food. We had a egg and sausage casserole and sausage balls for brunch at 12pm. Here we actually have to make our own sausage using ground pork and some spices, so it is more of a treat to have sausage. After brunch we started preparing pies (see Ken's blog for more details). Then we worked on the main meal, which we ate at 6pm. We had Turkey (see Beth's blog for more details), corn pudding (my grandma used to always make this), broccoli casserole (also a must-have for my family Thanksgivings), and mashed potatoes (my favorite Thanksgiving food). Throughout the day we played some games when we had time in between cooking and eating.

Last year our team started a tradition that my family has for Thanksgiving. We have a special Thanksgiving tablecloth. Every year we add things that we are thankful for in fabric pens or permanent markers. Yesterday, it was fun to look back at the things that each person on the team was thankful for last year and also see what each of us is thankful for this year. Reading the tablecloth brought back fun memories of last year's Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving was a wonderful reminder of all I have to be thankful for!