Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration started early on Sunday morning when we picked Jessica up from the airport. One of the things I always look forward to on Thanksgiving is having family come from near and far. In this case, it was very far but definitely got that holiday spirit started. We have had lots of laughs and fun and it is just nice to at least have a little more family here. In the future, if I ever complain about all the noise and work it is to get the family all together, punch me!

Tomorrow, Dennis has to go to work and Alyna has school but we have invited neighbors, friends and the missionaries to share a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with us. Dennis called around and found a poultier who ordered us a turkey. Jessica and I were going to have to ride the 6 miles each way to go pick it up on the bikes yesterday but it was still so cold and icy that I took Dennis to work and we had the car to use for the day. The turkey had better be really good because it cost $50 euros for a 15 pound bird. We also went to Makro, the local version of Sam's Club, and got most of the paper products and food we will need.

We have several vegetarians coming so I have been reading up on how to do gravy. If all goes well, we will have a vegetarian and non-vegetarian version of both gravy and stuffing.
So here is the menu:
Appetizers:
Cheese ball and Crackers
Three varieties of Tapinada and little bread dippers
Olives, pickles, cheese cubes, pickled onions

Main Course:
Turkey and Ham
Cranberry relish and cranberry jelly
Mashed Potatoes
Turkey or Veggie Gravy
Sweet Potatoes with peaches
Steamed broccoli
Corn pudding
Raspberry Jello
Rolls (unfortunately not homemade)
Butter
Jam

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Banana Cream Pie
Fla Torte
Baked Pears

The biggest challenge with this meal it trying to figure out how to cook it all and have it all be warm at the same time. There is one small oven/micro unit and then a five burner stove. We looked around last week for a crock pot or some kind of warming unit and couldn't find anything so I bought a chafing tray. Today, we went into the specialty kitchen store here in town and I found a crock pot. It was $75 Euros! Hopefully we will be able to make do with what we have.

Today, Jessica and I got all the furniture moved around and tonight, Dennis will go get some tables and chairs from the church. It will be a whole night affair since the church is about 20 minutes away.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.