Thanksgiving

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my family before leaving for Indonesia this year. Jonathan and Anna were able to drive over from Ohio for two days which was really nice.

Shae heard about Turkey Trots this past year and kept mentioning how he wanted to do one on Thanksgiving. So the morning we referred to as Thanksgiving, we bundled up and went out and tried to do a little Turkey Trot. Unfortunately it did not last too long as the wind was really strong and really cold. We tried.

   And then we feasted. It was so wonderful to be able to enjoy all the yummy Thanksgiving food and quality family time before we left. 

 Little did we know at the time that we would get two more Thanksgiving feasts the week of Thanksgiving (people in our ward are so thoughtful). One family invited us over the Tuesday before Thanksgiving which is the day they decided to celebrate this year. That Tuesday was the prophet Mohammad's birthday so everyone had off of work and school, so they decided to celebrate then since it would be more convenient for them. We had a really nice dinner with them. Their youngest son is 12 and let our kids wrestle around with him, which they loved (not so sure he did). He was really sweet and also showed them a bunch of magic tricks.

On the day of Thanksgiving, we went to a plaza to get our photos taken for Indonesian IDs, then went to McDonalds for lunch. The most American place we could find in Indonesia to make it feel a little more like home.

 The kids thought it was pretty funny that they got rice with their chicken nuggets.

 I love how international McDonalds always have local cuisine as well. Which was fun to try once, but in the future I'll definitely be sticking with a burger and fries :).

That evening, we went over to the house of a family in our ward. They invited a few families over. We had so much yummy food and it was just really nice to be able to talk and laugh and have a good time. They were so sweet and told us to just bring whipped cream and ice cream for the pies since they knew that we were still figuring out grocery shopping and that we don't have an oven. I hated not being able to bring something a little nicer, but also really appreciated their thoughtfulness in making things easy on us that first week in Indonesia.

Belén loved checking out the hamster with some of the younger kids. 

 While Shae was busting a gut watching Home Alone with the bigger kids.

There's certainly nothing like being in another country to make you think about all the things you are grateful for. SO MUCH. 

I'm grateful that peanut butter can easily be bought in Jakarta. 

I'm grateful that we have warm water to shower in, and that the water pressure is good.

I'm grateful that we have air conditioning in every room of our apartment.

I'm grateful that our wifi works well.

...these first few gratefuls may or may not have been some of my biggest "comfort" fears before coming here...

I'm grateful for the church community. That we can go anywhere in the world and have a community of kind people to welcome us. 

I'm grateful for Email and Skpye and Whatsapp and Marco Polo that help us stay connected with family and friends while we are away.

I'm grateful that our little family gets to be on this adventure together, and despite all the hard things, we get to grow and learn and come closer together through it all (at least that's the hope right :). 

I'm grateful for living prophets and other church leaders who are inspired to help us know how we can be better disciples of Christ. When President Nelson encouraged members of the church to do a 10 day social media fast back in October, I first thought, well I don't need to do that. Then I thought, I should do that, at a time that would be most beneficial for me. Knowing I would miss all the fun holiday things (baking, parties, decorations, snow, picture books, etc), I had a feeling that I should wait until December to do it. A few days before December 1st I kept feeling like I should do it, so I started my social media fast on December 1st and it has been really wonderful. It's seems like such a silly thing, but it has been a testimony to me that there is spiritual power in following the prophet's council. 

I am grateful for Jesus Christ. For the light, peace, and hope that he brings to my life in troubled times, as well as untroubled times.