The First Thanksgiving

This year was Ella’s first Thanksgiving and my first Thanksgiving with Ella home. And what a great Thanksgiving we had! I think it was by best Thanksgiving in Africa so far.

We trooped over to our friend Summers house where we joined her American family, our soon to be new American neighbor family, and several Ugandan singles and couples. There were a total of ten kids, all under six, a Jr. High girl and a four month old baby.

Following the tradition of the last two years, I baked two pumpkin pies. I didn’t actually taste them but they looked all right. There were too many other yummy looking desserts that I had to try instead :)

Ella wore her fancy new PINK duds that our friend Sue got her. This really made keeping track of her amongst all the other similarly sized kids a lot easier!

Hmm now, which one’s my kid? (There is a certain benefit to dressing your child in such incredibly bright and PINK colors I guess!)

Imagine our surprise and amazement when an Indian and a Pilgrim (Eliana and Eliza) showed up!!

Lined up waiting their turns for Pin The Feather On The Turkey

L with her buddies, Ezra and Eliana. I was trying to get a picture of Ella’s footwear. She was wearing one rubber boot. And it wasn’t even pink! Why? I do not know. But Eliana turned out to be a much cuter picture than a rubber boot…

Chow time!! The little guys lined up outside on a bench. It was almost like real little pilgrim children who stood while they ate (at least that’s how my parents always told me pilgrim kids ate), only these guys kneeled.

This was our AMAZING hunk of pork that Summer made– complete with pig hair!! (there’s some of it on the left side). It was super delicious and I pigged out!! Hee hee ;)

There was an awesome spread of food. Maybe everything seemed more delicious this year because Ella was finally home to enjoy it with. I don’t know but this food was GOOD! I ate so much that I almost bloated and had to come home and lay on the couch and watch a movie. Ella ate so much that her belly button was starting to pop out! I’d never quite ever seen anything like that before… I think it will probably go down in Halland Thanksgiving history!

Ella enjoyed the other kids and the games they played, as well as the food. I enjoyed the other adults, the kids (which is really something as there were lots of them!) and of course the food.

I am SO THANKFUL to God that my daughter is safe at home this year. She has been SUCH a blessing to my life. I really thought I had a pretty darned good one before she entered the picture but WOW – I had no idea how much better it would become! Right when I thought “life couldn’t get much better than this” God gave me this amazing blessing!

Through Ella, my relationships with people have really been strengthened. With my family, with “old” friends, with new friends and even colleagues. Some people warned me about how my life would change and how I’d be “tied down” with a kid, as if my world would shrink. The exact opposite has happened! Yes, my life has changed, but for the better! I am so thankful for the good friends that God has given me and Ella here in Entebbe. I just love my mixture of friends!