Celebrating Thanksgiving....Twice

Don't you just love Thanksgiving? We do! I love getting together with family and friends and sharing things that I am thankful to God for blessing me with. This year, though we were not with family since they are all back in South Carolina, we were with a lot of friends which made this Thanksgiving special. We actually celebrated Thanksgiving twice this year. No, your not seeing double from eating too much turkey. LOL We ate too much turkey since we ate it twice!

We had the joy and the privilege of hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our new home this year. We had five other missionary families join us for a celebration with all of the fixens (yeah, I know that is "southern"). We had the turkey, thanks to Tom Waldon, the dressing - two types actually, breaded and cornbread dressing - cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mash potatoes, an awesome tasting corn dish (thanks Betty), pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and mincemeat pie...oh I know I am forgetting something but you can tell that we were blessed with a lot of variety and delicious food! Yummy! =)

There was a great time of sharing why we feel so blessed this year as well as a lot of laughter and story-telling of years gone by. I am so glad that we were able to have Bud & Karen Simon, Jerry & Betty Poppe, Danny & Denise Stone, Charlie Finocchiaro, and Doug & Carol Reed join us and share in such a wonderful holiday. It was our last gathering here in the DR with Doug & Carol Reed since they will be leaving us very soon to move back to the U.S. after being here for 19 years, planting churches and training up pastors to carry on in spreading and teaching the gospel. They are a real treasure and wish know that God will bless them in their new adventure!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to talk about our second celebration...

At around 7:30 that night we went to a Dominican celebration of Thanksgiving. Doesn't that strike you as odd? Maybe not since most of you have celebrated Thanksgiving for as long as you can remember so it just seems normal and usual to you but the odd part of it all is that they are...shall we say...Dominican. It is an "American" holiday remember....we celebrate it because of the whole pilgrims coming to America and being helped by the Indians to survive and thrive deal?! Ahhh, now your with me. lol So Now your question is probably, "Why would they celebrate it?" Let me explain that most of these particular Dominicans have lived in America at one point in their lives, whether a long time or short time, they were able to experience the Thanksgiving celebration and they liked the idea and the concept behind it so much that they brought it back with them and they continue in the celebration here in the DR. Pretty cool huh? We think so! =)

Anyway, we were able to join well over 30 other Dominicans, which included one of our favorite Dominican families, the Cabrals, and our Dominican pastor and his family and many many others for a wonderful time of fellowship and of course, more food. =) I think that we returned home at around 11:40pm that night and well, let's just say that I am still not hungry and it has been 2 days. I have included pictures from both gatherings. The picture closest to this paragraph is of Zinayda, me and Mami Lydia (Zinayda's Mom). I love these two ladies! Hey look...I am actually taller than someone...that is a rare thing for me. Hahaha!