Thanksgiving Day 2009

Chickens in disguise as turkeys once again fooled our taste buds this Thanksgiving.  Maybe it is all the normal fixin's that help them along.  This year we had ham, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, sauteed green beans, macaroni and cheese, stuffing and rolls.  For dessert we had pumpkin pie, pumpkin rolls, carrot cake, and berry cobbler (with berries from our back yard).  The food was only a very small portion of our day.

Our special guests for the day were Daniel and Amparo Lopez and their daughters, Debora, Cesia, and Keren along with Rebeca, Sebastian and Rudy.  Juan Carlos also stopped by for some fellowship.  The guys started off watching futbol (soccer) because there was no American football to see.  Then they headed outside to fellowship.  Meanwhile the ladies were finishing up the meal...and I was setting the oven on fire.

 You know I don't do it on purpose but it has literally become a tradition for us to have some sort of fire on Thanksgiving.

After lunch we began our traditional game of Dominoes.

 Took a break for dessert.

 Played some SPOONS.

And finished Dominoes.

Thanksgiving week

Thanksgiving on the mission field certainly adds a new dimension to the holiday.  Some things we just have to do without, like Turkey.  As you know from reading about our other Thanksgivings here in Uruguay we replace the Turkey with large chickens...just can't get ourselves to pay the $100+ for a gobbler.  And it actually tastes like Turkey!  Don't roll your eyes...go ahead try it. :-) 

This years adaptation comes in the form of lack of a van.  As I began this post Brandon declared the Micro Macro van was here.  It turns out that we had to move to the mission field to reach the elevated status of having our food delivered.  Just kidding.  It's actually a free service they offer for purchases too numerous to load onto a moto.

I debated about having a real Thanksgiving meal this year, with all we have going on it just didn't seem possible.  It wasn't until last night that I decided I could swing it.  I'll have to get everything prepped tomorrow after our Baptist World Mission meeting in the morning because we have a full day in Montevideo on Wednesday, but it will be well worth it. Although this year will not doubt be bittersweet we are really looking forward to enjoying the meal and fellowship with dear friends! 

Please be in prayer for us this week as it is exceptionally busy:

Tuesday - School, BWM Uruguay meeting, Thanksgiving preps
Wednesday - Day in Montevideo for my MRI and paperwork errands so we can fly out with the kids.
Thursday - Thanksgiving day
Friday - School, my goodbye party
Saturday - School, Kaitlin's goodbye sleepover
Sunday - Final Sunday here, Family goodbye party in church, Brandon's goodbye camp out

Thanksgiving Day 2008

Scorching heat, tons of food, dear friends and thankful hearts. Thanksgiving day this year was a wonderful day! Daniel and Amparo Lopez, Peruvian missionaries working with us here in Colonia, and their 3 girls; Rebeca Valiente, Amparo's sister and our new language teacher; Sabrina Estevez one of the young ladies from the church here; and Sebastian Pereira an asisstant, institute student future Uruguayan pastor all were our special guests.

We all enjoyed some fellowship time, after we stuffed ourselves full of food. Then we had some pumpkin pie, yummy! Since it was over 100 with the heat index the kids jumped on the trampoline while we sprayed them with water. Then later when it was cooler outside than inside the men took a dining room table to the patio and we taught everyone how to play Mexican Train dominoes.

Half of the spread of food- jello mold, stuffing, mashed potatos, macaroni & cheese, and carrots.

Deviled eggs, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, gravy, more stuffing, and the Uruguayan turkey aka large chickens.

Amparo and Daniel with Nehemiah and Silas.

Brandon, Sebastian and Scott.

Kaitlin, Rebeca, Adeline, Debora, and Amparo trying to learn how to play dominoes.

Brandon drinking the mate.

Amparo also.

Simeon loves mate.

Me and Kaitlin.
Silas and Sabrina.

Uruguayan Turkeys

Pumpkin and apple pie, banana pudding and cherry dump cake with fresh whip cream topped off our Thanksgiving meal this past Thursday. We had all the rest of the North American fixings - stuffing, sweet potato casserole, onion pie (this was new to us, thanks Judy for the great dish), a relish tray minus carrots and celery because we couldn't find any fresh and the black olives that we forgot to put out, deviled (fallen angel :-) eggs, mashed potatos, gravy and Uruguayan Turkeys. What a delicious meal!!! Even better was the fellowship with our dear friends, Bill and Judy Baltzersen, who gave up the holiday with their family to be here to help us with Silas.

In case you are wondering what the difference is between an American and Uruguayan turkey, keep reading. I hate to make our blog too techinical, but the biggest difference is that the great big beautiful imported turkey costs over $100 US dollars (!!!!) and those big fat juicy Uruguayan Turkeys (aka chickens) cost 10 dollars. Though we would have loved some real turkey, the Chic-fil-a cows will be quite pleased to know that we definitely enjoyed our imitations.

Our chickens look like turkeys when they are in my small Uruguayan oven. For the right perspective, that's a 9x13" pan.


After we feasted on our very north American fare we allowed time for everyone to share their thankfulness to God. It warmed our hearts to hear how thankful our children are to be here in Uruguay. This year has not been easy, the adjustments have been tremendous and the lessons difficult, but God's grace has proven to be more than sufficient! We look forward to another year on the mission field and to next Thanksgiving where we can once again give thanks for another wonderful year, to the One Who deserves all the glory and honor!

Our warming oven - also known as a Uruguayan BBQ.