Happy Thanksgiving - from Jen

It’s Thanksgiving here!

Liz and I are up early, starting to do all of the baking for the big dinner tonight and planning. In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, our guest list keeps getting bigger and bigger. This is all nice, BUT WE’RE NOT GOING TO HAVE ENOUGH FOOD! (Well, we will. Liz and I just need to run out and get a few more cans of corn, more green beans, more potatoes, more….shoot. More everything, actually!) And as I was making the pie dough this morning (without measuring cups and measuring spoons – ah!!!), I kept thinking of everyone back home.

Here, everyone we hang out with is not from the U.S. And in the past few weeks, while inviting people to our meal, we’ve been explaining the history of Thanksgiving and the importance of sitting around the table with good family and friends.

And so, while making the pies, I kept thinking of this and the importance of friends and family and laughing and telling jokes and making jabs and doing the MOUNTAINS of dishes afterwards and watching cousins step on the scales before and after dinner and eating ridiculous amounts of food that are actually cold because by the time EVERYONE has prayed it’s about 20 minutes later and playing the fork game and trying to beat your uncles at euchre while eating your third helping of pie that you realized halfway in is shoot, probably the gluten/soybean/corn free pie and pretending to MAYBE care about the football game that's on tv that the Lions are probably losing again anyways and crap, how is Uncle Tony STILL eating, and HOW in the WORLD do we ALWAYS bring so much more regular kielbasa than smoked kielbasa, and oh man, people are still doing the dishes?! 

Oh, crap. Now I’m like, super emotional.

ANYWAYS. Back at home, you kind of take the big family for granted. 

So I hope everyone back home truly appreciates Thanksgiving (your tomorrow!). It’s super cheesy saying that you don’t really appreciate something until you don’t have it, but it’s true. It really is.

I hope you all know how much you mean to me.

GIANT HUGS – ALL AROUND,

jen