Dia de Gracias aka Thanksgiving

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Honduras this week. Well…we actually celebrated about four of them! We definitely were not lacking in the eating department this week! We have so much to be thankful for, we decided to make it a week long celebration! We started on Wednesday with a ½ day of school. The kids got out at about 11:30am so the teachers could be freed up for the afternoon. Around 12:30pm a bus came and picked us up and we headed out to the military base to indulge in the first of our Thanksgiving feasts. I think all the Honduran teachers thought we were crazy because all of the Americans were going nuts on the bus. We were so excited…anticipated all the great food! We were singing, carrying on, and laughing for no reason the whole trip out there! Once we got clearance (at the entrance gate to the base they checked each person’s ID with their list of passes), we were headed straight for the dining facility. Greg and I got off the bus and started out toward the front of the stampede. However, once we got to the doors to the building, the other people had basically pushed their way in front of us. I guess the American teachers don’t know how the ‘line system’ works here…or should I say, how it doesn’t work here. You pretty much just ramrod your way through the crowd here….they conveniently forgot to tell us that before we arrived! Oh well! J It brought back fond memories of our honeymoon in Italy when the Europeans would mull over women, children, and elderly people just to be in the front!

Anyway, any hostile feelings we might have been harboring instantly vanished when we reached the start of the buffet line (we waiting about 20 minutes to get to the front). Shrimp cocktail, roast beef, ham, turkey, 2 kinds of stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, a plethora of veggies (including my favorite - baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows), rolls, eggnog, all kinds of fruit, mixed nuts, apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies…and more! It was amazing! There is a 95% chance that between Greg and I both, we at least sampled each dish available! Greg was determined when he sat down that he would finish every last morsel of mounded food on his completely overflowing plate. About 7 minutes later….the mission was accomplished! (Well, maybe it was more like 15!) I was quite impressed! (Before and after photos of Greg´s plate are to the left and right respectively.) By the time it was said and done, his face had turned an unusual shade of red and he was sweating profusely…but nonetheless, he was victorious! I didn’t do quite as good as him, but I was uncomfortably full once I finally retired my fork.

We officially left the dining hall at about 2:30pm. We waddled over to the chapel and our familiar hangout place, Crossroads, for a little R & R. Around 5:00pm we headed over to the recreation fields to watch Army take on the Air Force in a base-wide football game (yet another opportunity for us to sit around and let our gorged bellies have more time to digest). The Air Force (for whom we were cheering) came out on top at the end of the game. Following the game, we went over the firehouse to watch the “Tops in Blue” perform (a U.S. Air Force entertainment group, made up of all active duty personnel that travels all over the world to entertain military troops and their families). It was a great show, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the USAF through song and dance from each decade starting with 1947 to 2007. It was truly a great day! By the time we got home (at 10:30pm), we were both still full!

On Thursday, each teacher was responsible for coordinating a ‘Thanksgiving Lunch’ for their classes. Many of the students would celebrate Thanksgiving for the first time in 2007. Miss Emily’s 4th grade class celebrated with food from Domino’s (Pizza, cheesy bread, and brownies) while Mr. Greg’s 7th graders indulged in Wendy’s Super Value Meals. Not your typical Thanksgiving cuisine, but nonetheless, it was still time spent eating with a spirit of thankfulness! That evening we headed back to the base for yet ANOTHER meal! Several people from the church volunteered to cook a Thanksgiving Dinner for anyone interested in joining them in the meal. They figured maybe 25-30 people would come. Little did they know that approximately 150 people would show up to eat! The buffet line had a steady wave of people in it for about 45 minutes! And somehow, there ended up being plenty of food for everyone to fill their plates (I am telling you, it was like the story in Matthew when Jesus feeds the crowds with only a few loaves of bread and a couple fish…truly amazing!)

Which brings us up to Saturday…..our last Thanksgiving Supper! Before we knew they school was making any plans at all to celebrate Thanksgiving, all of the missionaries got together and decided we would cook a dinner together. Greg and I, being the oldest and wisest (ha!) got stuck making the turkey and stuffing. Luckily, good ‘ol Jumbo Supermarket actually had some Butterball Turkeys! A friend brought me a Rachel Ray magazine from the states (with a roast turkey recipe) and our neighbor allowed us to use her oven (we don’t have one) and Wuh Lah! Thanksgiving #4!

It actually is pretty suiting that we would celebrate this holiday four times this year here! In fact, it makes me realize that we should really take the time to celebrate Thanksgiving everyday. We have so much to be thankful for…God provides for each and every need that we have! It is very easy to get caught up focusing on the things that we don’t have, rather than realizing all of the abundance that we do have! Take time to count your blessings, naming them one by one, and you will have many reasons to celebrate Thanksgiving each day!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE!!!