Give thanks!

This Thanksgiving we were once again far, far away from family and friends. It wouldn't be the first time we'd had a Thanksgiving dinner with just the 3 of us. The foods always great, but the conversation wouldn't be any different than any other day without anyone else there to mix it up. Well, wouldn't you know it, the day before Thanksgiving, some diode inside our gas oven went out. No oven for Thanksgiving! NOOOOO!

Then I got the dreaded call from the Bishopric to give a talk in church this Sunday. Not the rest of the family, just ME! Yea! But out of that phone call Bro. Birch (a podiatrist) invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Goodie! It's always fun to have new people to chat with and get to know over good food.

My assignment was to make a pie or two. She knew the oven was out so she asked for cream pies. Anything without baking involved. So I made a chocolate cream pie with the oreo cookie crust. And then, since my bananas were beyond the enjoyable eating stage (you know, too sweet, a little too mushy, but great for a cream pie), I decided to make a banana cream pie. Luckily Scott bought one of those electric broiler oven things. Because you still have to bake your pie crust for a cream pie like that. Boy, did it turn out delicious! YUMMY!

The dinner itselft was good. The turkey they had cooked in an imu wrapped in ti leaves. It was a little dry, but that wasn't our host's fault. It was cooked at the high school with many other turkeys. We also had ham. And this family liked to have cherry pie filling with their ham (it was on the side, you didn't have to eat it that way). They also had a dish of ground beef with raisins and something else in it. That was something new. The rolls were wonderful! There was corn, green bean cassarole (a staple for any Thanksgiving dinner), some jello salad that I thought was a the cranberry sauce, some other long green bean dish with bacon that was pretty tough to chew, and stuffing that didn't even make it out of the oven so I didn't get any because I was done eating by then. (I snuck one bite of it.) All in all, it was a wonderful dinner and it was nice to get to know some people in our ward a little better than just passing in the halls on Sunday.

After dinner we watched a video of Cirque du Soleil (sp?). It was quite entertaining to say the least. Then we whipped out the pies! There was coconut cream, banana cream, chocolate cream, apple and pumpkin. I had a piece of the banana and coconut, with just a bite of the chocolate!

Luckily we baked our turkey so we can still have our turkey sandwiches, turkey enchiladas, turkey tacos . . . and any other turkey dish I can think of. And I will definitely be cooking some stuffing to get that part I missed out on. And of course we'll be baking the green bean cassarole again, can't get enough of that.

We're thankful for friends inviting us over and making our day a little more enjoyable. We're thankful for family even though we miss them terribly and can't be with them this holiday season. We're thankful for such a beautiful world to enjoy. We're thankful for our health. And most of all, we're thankful for our Savior!