Thanksgiving

Although Thanksgiving Day didn't feel like Thanksgiving around here (because Kenya doesn't celebrate the holiday and because we're the only Americans in our community right now), we were able to celebrate in our own way and stretched the celebration to last a bit longer than usual.

At the beginning of the week we started a new tradition: a thankful tree!  This tree decoration was given to us by our church in Michigan, Journey Ministries, when we first left for Kenya in 2016.  They had filled the tree with prayers and Scripture passages written on leaves.  It was a huge encouragement to us and it sat on the mantel in our apartment at Tenwek for two years.  It got packed up when we moved to Chogoria but never brought out since we have very little shelf space in our house.  But inspiration struck as I thought about how to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.  We pulled the tree out, cut out new leaves, and spent time writing what we are thankful for this year.

And there was so much to be thankful for!  I loved seeing what the boys wrote, everything from worship music to Mom & Dad to toys to Kenya to Smaug (the dragon from The Hobbit).  I love this new tradition and I look forward to continuing it in years to come.

On the actual holiday, Eli worked all day and we barely saw him.  But I was prepared with lots of snuggle time and reading Thanksgiving books together with the boys, and I busted out a craft idea.  It involved paint and bare feet and lots of giggles as we hopped to the bathroom to wash off painted feet before covering the floor with said paint, and it was a success!

I vowed to make something special to eat despite having no Thanksgiving food available.  Cinnamon rolls were the food of choice since I had some leftover cream cheese frosting in the fridge - a super special treat given how rare it is to get cream cheese here!

I can vouch that they were delicious!

The next day we got in the car and took off for Tenwek, where we knew there'd be other Americans and turkey engulfed on Saturday.  It took us two days to get there - it's an 8-hour drive on Kenya's roads, which is simply not doable with our kids current ages still - but we made it in time for a turkey lunch with a few good friends.  And it was wonderful!  There were even decorations on the table!  And coveted cranberry sauce from America!

So we had a lovely Thanksgiving celebration even though it looked quite different this year.  It had the potential to be strange and lonely, but it was anything but.  It was different and life-giving.  It required a flexible attitude and some creativity (and a willingness to cross the country), but it was great and we are so thankful for how our Thanksgiving turned out this year!