Happy Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving just hours away here in Asia, (you in America have slightly longer to wait), I am very happy to report that all of my Thanksgiving preparations are complete. We will be getting together with other American friends and divided the duties. This year I was responsible for the turkey, dressing, gravy, and two pies--pumpkin and pecan. It's so fun to gather with other Americans (it is an American holiday, after all), plus we all break out our stash of imported ingredients in order to put on this feast. It's interesting too, since everything has to be made from scratch, the preparations take more time but I think the food turns out more delicious!

Lou, my helper, pretty much did dishes all day as I worked on one item after another. I roasted the turkey this morning, then took it off the bone and used the bones to make stock, then used the stock to put into the stuffing and gravy. I hope it will all be tasty! New this year--I tried a recipe for Hot Brandy Sauce (never fear, it is cooked so the alcohol all dissapates!) which is to serve with the pumpkin pie. I snuck a lick of it and it was wonderful!

My friend Amy and her family are hosting the gathering, so we will all invade her house tomorrow. She's making the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, and a chocolate mousse pie, and my friend Rachel is bringing her famous cheesecake ball, an appetizer plate, deviled eggs, the dinner rolls, and the cranberry sauce. Rachel is also our craft-and-fun-kids-stuff organizer extraordinaire, she got together several really fun ideas to make Thanksgiving memorable and meaningful for the kids.

Well, there's lots to be thankful for, every day, not just Thanksgiving day. But for now, I'm just thankful that I'm done getting ready, largely due to the fact that Lou helped me all day and my girls happily played together without much mommy time. I'll be sure to post some pictures from our celebration tomorrow, as well as some thoughts on what I'm thankful for this year, in a day or two.

Now the only question is, what will we eat for supper tonight?