Thanksgiving

As soon as the month of November hit, all the US expats were talking turkey. Good turkeys are not easy to find and they are pricey. A group of us from Church made plans to share a table for the holiday. Three birds were prepared for the weekend- each family that cooked one got it from a different store so we could compare notes, prices, and results. I got our bird from the butcher we regularly go to for our meats. It was the biggest of the three, and the least expensive. It came as a frozen, plastic-wrapped hunk. A few days before the feast, Selvi and I moved it from the freezer to the fridge. As it thawed, a problem began to emerge. 

I screamed out loud once it dawned on me what I was looking at. Selvi gets all the credit for doing the dirty work. Beheading a turkey is not for the faint of heart. She also stood at the sink and plucked out the rest of the feather nubs...

Once Selvi had worked her magic, I brined the turkey, stuffed it with compound butter and it roasted up almost like what we are used to (and the gravy made from the drippings was on point!). Together, Selvi and I made a sweet potato casserole (the sweet potatoes here are yellow) and a green bean casserole (can't get canned soup or canned beans here... so we did it all from scratch).

We ended up with 23 lovely people at our house for the big meal. Thanksgiving Thursday was not a holiday, so we hosted the event the following Saturday. That morning all the guys took the kids to the green space at our friends complex for a turkey bowl. We were scheduled to begin our meal around 2. But Indian + mormon standard time converged in a resulting 3PM lunch.

Everyone brought an impressive amount of food. All the beloved staples were present. It was a taste of home and we were so happy to have shared it with these fine people.

Christmas Break : First week in TX

I made it into Grant's class party on the last day of school before break. Here he is with his two best buds, Grayson and Kyler. They are in the same class at school and all live within bike-riding distance in our neighborhood. Kyler is also in our ward so he and Grant get to hang out at church too.

We stayed busy on our days off school. Grace and Grant entertained neighbor friends nearly everyday. It has always been a goal for Cori and I that ours be the hang out house. We love having everyone play on our turf.

The annual Christmas plates went out to all our neighbors. After living here for nearly 8 months, it was nice to finally get around and have a conversation with everyone.

Our travel plans put us on a plane Christmas day. So we asked Santa if he would stop at our house a day early. On Christmas Eve Eve we set out cookies, threw sparkly reindeer food across the front lawn, and snuggled into our beds. The girls set up camp in the boys' room that night for a sibling slumber party.

Christmas Eve morning, Cori and I were awakened by the melodious voices of our children singing to us over the baby monitor. We joined them in the boys' room to read some scriptures and then they got to descend the stairs one at a time in reverse birth order.

Santa came! Grace got rollerblades, the one thing on her list. Grant got a drifter. Eden got walkie talkies, the one thing on her list. And Jeffery got a magna doodle.

Because Santa is generous and because of a order snafu with Amazon (which resulted in no possibility of returning the duplicate order (their fault) because of "hazardous material" i.e. the battery) Grant was also given another drifter to share with his family.

The kids got to make several gingerbread houses. The gingerbread village spent a month lined up on the dining room table, and Jeffery spent a month climbing up onto the table picking and eating all the candy off. It's good to be the forth child sometimes.

One of my most favorite parts of Christmas: the mail! 

Polar Express and Changes

We had a big change come to our ward family just before Thanksgiving. Our single congregation was divided into two. Though we had grown to a remarkable size, the long-timers of our ward family had been together since the time they were a small branch meeting in a building 20 minutes away. But it was time. Our primary was 180+ kids strong. The youth program was enormous. All the auxiliaries were laden. And ward functions were cumbersome.

In our new ward, I got to keep my post as the 1st counselor in the young women's presidency. Cori was called to be the 1st counselor in the bishopric, serving with our bishop from the previous ward. As the newest ward, we got to take the 1PM slot for sacrament meeting for a month- a true test of faith for any parent of young children. (We now meet at 9, amen) 

Plans were already in full swing for our ward Christmas party before the split. So, although we began meeting separately for everything else, we joined together for this one last enormous fun activity. As neither ward meetinghouse nor stake center could accommodate our numbers, we rented time in the cafeteria/auditorium of one of our elementary schools. 

It was a fun night. Pajama dress code, dance floor, dinner, cutest Santa ever, a reading of The Polar Express, some caroling and coco. We filled the place up to capacity.

Bishop L, the fearless shepherd

Thanksgiving

We met Cori's family in St. George for the Thanksgiving break. It is getting easier to travel with our crew. The older three just need a few books and electronics and do great without much help from us. Keeping the baby happy is still an adventure! But we had an easy uneventful trip over.

We all look forward to these visits. But Grace, Grant, and Eden (and Jeffery soon enough, surely) lay awake at night with excitement anticipating our time with family. Once we get there, it is days of non-stop play dates with their favorite friends. We love that they love their cousins so much. 

The whole beautiful group. 34 strong and counting.

We had a particularly nasty flu bug sweep through the camps. Grace and Eden were struggling with it on family picture day. I didn't even ask Eden to leave her blankie.

Ray has been busy organizing family names for temple work. He had work that needed to be done so he could be sealed to his parents (both deceased). It was really special to participate in this. Over the course of the week, we got to do baptisms, confirmations, initiatories, endowments, and sealings.

We had our Thanksgiving feast at the park down the road from Grandma Sandy and Papa Ray's condo. This was a perfect venue for our group. The food was great. The kids played and played. Cleanup was pretty quick.

And then it was time to head home. We said our tearful good-byes and drove to Vegas where we flew out the next morning.

(movie time in the basement)