...Letters from Joy...: Thanksgivng!

Well, the Thanksgiving weekend has ended. For Rachel and I, it was an extremely busy four days. We hosted two Thanksgiving meals in our apartment, one of which we did all the cooking. One was held on Thursday, where we invited friends and students of ours to come over for a traditional, American Thanksgiving meal. For almost all of them this was their very first Thanksgiving experience. Tom, a fellow employee of ours, shared with the group why we celebrate Thanksgiving, what some of the traditions are, and had everyone share one thing they were thankful for. It was a lot of fun! It wasn't exactly the same as Thanksgiving back home though. Albanian girls tend to eat very little. I've seen couples at restaurants where the man has a plate full of food and the girl doesn't eat anything. I'm used to seeing everyone, both guys and girls, stuff their face on Thanksgiving! :) I kind of felt like man, as I sat there with piles of everything on my plate. Yum, yum!!!

Our second Thanksgiving meal was with our team on Saturday. A couple of them came from two different countries. This second round wasn't as stressful as the first because everyone pitched in and therefore we didn't have to cook everything. We all had a good time! I ate way too much once again.

Rachel cooked her very first, homemade pie and I made my very first homemade sweet potato casserole. They both turned out super good!!! After spending all that time cooking, cleaning, and preparing, Rachel and I have a much greater appreciation for our mothers and grandmothers! We now view them as super women! How they've done this all these years we will never know...