Thanksgiving in Mexico

This year Thanksgiving looked much different than usual for our family. It's always a bit weird to be in a foreign country for a holiday, especially on a holiday that the country doesn't celebrate, like Thanksgiving in Mexico. However, thanks to a great community and schools, we were able to make some fun memories.

Our Thanksgiving fun actually started on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week at SMCA (the school I teach at and Josh attends). Seth and Sam didn't have school that day, so they came out with Josh and I and were able to join us for our school's Thanksgiving feast. It was such a fun and festive day. The students at school memorized all of Psalm 136 (well, at the least the big kids did...Josh and his classmates new about half the verses, and could say, "His loves endures forever," at the proper moments). We had turkey sandwiches and pumpkin pie, and the kids did crafts. It was a great day!

 Josh and his fellow students.

Me and my fellow teachers: Christina, Katie and Mrs. Bev

The first weird part about actual Thanksgiving day was that Seth and Sam had to go to school. It definitely doesn't feel like a festive holiday day if you don't get to sleep in. However, we decided to have the boys go to school, since their teachers asked Ben and I to come in and do a presentation to the fourth grade about Thanksgiving. Perhaps it was just a subtle way to get us to take our kids to school. Regardless, we took them up on the offer and did a little presentation to their 100 classmates about Thanksgiving (we may or may not have had to research in order to make sure we knew the actual true history about Thanksgiving...grade school was a long time ago!)

I was so thankful that Ben was able to go: he was the life of the party and had the grand idea of having the kids move around the room to a "fact or fiction" side for different statements we read them. It was loud, crazy, and fun. 

I was perfectly comfortable to man the powerpoint presentation with Josh while Ben spoke.

Josh didn't get the "turn around for a picture" memo, or maybe he did and didn't care.

Ben and I with the whole fourth grade.

Weird moment number two of Thanksgiving day was attending Seth and Sam's soccer game after school. It was a super fun game to watch, though, and a crazy setting right in the middle of the city.

Sammy is goalie (portero in Spanish)

After the game, we headed out to Back2back for the staff Thanksgiving meal. It was so nice to be invited and it just felt so festive to join a large group of people (especially in light of this being our "on" Morris year for Thanksgiving, so we would have been with about 75 family members at a camp if we were living in Portland).  

I'm telling you: it was the best Thanksgiving meal I've had! These guys have making turkey for mass amounts of people down pat! 

After the dinner, the boys played soccer under the lights. 

Meanwhile, there was praise and worship (in a mixture of Spanish and English). It was so beautiful and the setting couldn't be beat. I'm so thankful that I get to work for this amazing organization. (We sure did miss the Leonard's though and wished they were there with us!)

Thursday wasn't the end of our Thanksgivings...we still had one to go. We wanted to host a dinner at our home with some of our American friends: the Anderson's, the Lester's and the Williamson's. All of these friends work at the consulate and all of them will be leaving for their next post this late spring or early summer. We sure treasure time with them, as it is short and they have made life here so much more pleasant for us!   

 Talk about a good meal: I made two hams and everyone else brought some amazing sides. 

 Aaron took another picture for us so that I could be in it. 

 It was such a delightful evening: the kids played happily and the adults had great conversation. We're so thankful for each of these families that we've been able to meet here in Monterrey!