A very belated Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's been a busy time of year and I haven't had a chance to blog lately.  We had a most blessed Thanksgiving this year!  I remember back to last year's Thanksgiving and am amazed at the difference a year makes!!  Last year's Thanksgiving was especially challenging for me ... I was in a very low place ... we were all still struggling to adjust to our new and very different life here in Doha.  This year, we are completely adjusted, surrounded by friends, and blessed beyond measure!  The Lord is good!!

Thanksgiving festivities started on Wednesday with class parties at school.  Jaden's class made Stone Soup based on the book...everyone brings a vegetable to add to the soup and they eat Veggie soup for lunch.  All of grade 1 does the same and they have a huge long line of tables set up in the hallway.  It was awesome to see such a long table ... what a treat!  Of course most of the kids didn't like the soup, so turkey and cheese sandwiches were also provided.  I made turkey cookies for Jaden's class too.

Turkey cookies for Jaden's class

 For Nicholas' class, I read a story explaining the first Thanksgiving and a typical Thanksgiving today.  Then I made a little scavenger hunt for the kids ... all things related to Thanksgiving.  I think the scavenger was a big hit!  My boys even played with it at our house all weekend ... hiding the items and making the other find.  It was great fun!  Then we had a traditional Thanksgiving meal ... preschool style!  Turkey lunch meat, croissants, pop corn, craisins, and pumpkin cupcakes.

Nicholas' class scavenger hunt

Nicholas' Thanksgiving party

 Ken had to work on Thanksgiving day (since it's not a holiday here), but that evening, we attended a fabulous potluck dinner on the compound with our ExxonMobil family and friends.  It was a beautiful evening on the rooftop of our clubhouse.  The weather was glorious, the food divine, and the kids had a blast riding scooters around the tennis courts.  It was a wonderful evening! 

After church on Friday, we had a more intimate Thanksgiving dinner at our house with our dear friends, the Zahn's. 

 

Getting into the Thanksgiving spirit with some home made decorations...
all are Pinterest inspired

I loved the way my "Give Thanks" banner turned out! 

I couldn't find any Thanksgiving decorations in the stores, but I liked the way my buffet turned out ... a candle, a bit of potpourri, and a framed card on one end...

At the other end... some more potpourri, another framed card,
and a framed family art project (the turkey feathers are our hands).

And finally, a Thanksgiving tree as our table center piece.
I used a large mason jar filled with popcorn to hold the bejeweled twigs I found and every night we wrote something we are thankful for onto the leaves and tied them to the tree.  The boys loved it!

Then to round out the fun, we went to the ExxonMobil Family Fun Day on Saturday.  It's a fantastic beach party held annually here.  The children's area includes bouncy castles, face painting, balloon making, clowns on stilts and unicycles, popcorn, cotton candy, henna tattoos, hair braiding, caricature drawing, coloring, carnival games with prizes... they also had a DJ with music blasting and beach games.  Then along the beach, kids built sand castles and played in the water ... they even had giant trampolines and inflatable slides over the water.  Of course they also had several tents shading table area with buffet breakfast and another buffet for lunch.  It's a great day!!  We had a blast!!

So many wonderful memories over a very short weekend and did we take pictures??  Shame on us!!!  You should have seen the kids for thanksgiving too!!!  They wanted to wear their bow ties!!!  And since there are no pictures, let's just say I've never looked more beautiful!!!  :-) 

One Thanksgiving tradition I didn't miss this year ... black Friday!  I used to think it was great fun to get up early and hit all the stores in search of unbelievable deals, but it has become so over the top in recent years.  It was nice to be away from all of the craziness!