Thanksgiving

For thanksgiving this year, I agreed to bring in a traditional American dessert to the boys' classrooms.  I made them each a pumpkin pie to share with their friends.  I hadn't realized that Nicholas only has a couple of American kids in his class and Jaden is the only American kid in his class.  Many of the children (and parents) had never had pumpkin pie before! 

Thanksgiving Day isn't a holiday here, so the boys went off to school and Ken went to work.  That evening, we joined many other ExxonMobil families in the clubhouse for a huge Thanksgiving feast.  It was potluck and everyone brought a dish to share.  There must have been 100+ people.  It was a huge spread and a lovely gathering.

Nicholas wanted to get dressed up for Thanksgiving dinner!
Aren't they so cute?!!  He was so proud of himself, I didn't
have the heart to tell him that tie is ENTIRELY too small!!!  :-)

The following day, I volunteered to help cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal to serve to a large group of American troops stationed here.  I was honored to help and I ended up making 4 more pumpkin pies and enough stuffing to feed 50-60 people. 

All in all, I made 7 pumpkin pies, sweet potatoes for 20, and stuffing for about 70 people.  It took nearly all week to make the pie crusts and bread crumbs for my effort.  I learned that next year, I should shop BEFORE I decide what to prepare!  I didn't know I wouldn't be able to find pre-made pie shells and pepperidge farm stuffing mix!!  :-)  I drove all over Doha looking for ingredients and then ended up making it all from scratch!  Surprisingly, it didn't take as long as I expected.  And everything turned out just fine.

Unfortunately, Jaden woke up on Friday morning with a 103F fever!  So after all that cooking, we didn't even get to enjoy the feast!!!  Ken delivered the food to the party and we spent the weekend at home.  Jaden was bummed to miss the party and even more upset to miss school today. Praying for a quick recovery for him!! We want everyone healthy before we leave for vacation on Dec 6...

Since we were stuck home all weekend, I decided to get a jump on holiday planning ... I got this idea from pinterest - an activity advent calendar.  Each day, the boys pull a message out of the envelop with a Christmas activity we can do together ... things include decorate Christmas tree, make Christmas cookies, watch Christmas movie, drink hot cocoa, etc, etc, etc.  I hope the boys enjoy it!!