Thinking of You on Thanksgiving

I had a new feeling today in my 'Bits and Bobs' 90 minute exercise class. You'd think bits and bobs would be benign but today I had 'Feel No Pain Neal' as the teacher. He seemed totally unaffected by the steeper and steeper climbs and longer sets on the spinning bikes. Anyways, back to the new feeling. The music was blaring away, inspiring us to keep pushing with the beat when all of a sudden I just wanted to shout, "Hey, it's Thanksgiving today! I'm from America and it's a major holiday! This is big stuff, people. Peddle those bikes." I restrained myself, all except for the smile that was plastered on my face.

It was a normal day here with school and work. In fact the girls each have several large examinations for the next several days. Tonight we ate leftover Enchiladas and pumpkin cake. We did have some ‘Dinner and a Question’ kind of activity centering on God’s provisions for us in the transition to a new place. Unfortunately, a spirit of gratefulness does not ooze out of us each day so we have to help each other. It doesn’t take much though, for us to remember that we are full of thanks for your place in our lives.

We did celebrate on Saturday with the Americans on Dennis' team and hosted the Brits that were in town. (I just now got back to completing this blog entry) Julieanne is showing one of the British daughters what to put on her plate. Everone did a part of the meal. The guy waving in the back is Dennis' boss, Dick, who smoked turkeys through the night. The feast was complete with stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, pecan tart and cranberry apple crumble. It was a taste of home but the people we gathered with were new friends. I guess it was like that first Thanksgiving sharing the feast with new friends that had helped learn a new land. These are some of the faces God has given Dennis to 'learn a new land.'