Week 11: Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving! And for some of you, Happy Black Friday. I can honestly say that I am thankful Black Friday isn't near as big of a deal here as it is in America. The only store here that has a Black Friday sale is ASDA, which is a part of the Wal-mart family.

This week has been full of our regular activities. We had our assemblies this week, where we were able to announce winners in a Christmas card contest we had. We asked the school if the children could make some Christmas cards themed around the Nativity scene for our Christmas flyer. We had three winners, and each one was thrilled to be named the winner, and even more ecstatic when they received a Christmas present from us.

Tot's and Toys play group was busy once again, with 13 children, and 10 adults. It is encouraging to see more and more consistency from people. This indicates that they are comfortable with the playgroup and with us.

Wednesday evening, we celebrated Thanksgiving. For the most part, our Thanksgiving dinner is similar to an English Christmas dinner. There were some exceptions, Green Bean Casserole, Lime Pear Delight (family recipe), and Sour Cream Apple Pie (another family recipe). All went over fairly well, and no one got sick from my cooking! It was a wonderful chance to spend time with them all, and share a bit of American culture. Afterwards, they asked for a quiz, so I created a quiz about America. Questions included what is the first state to join the union, the last state to join the union. What is the name of the US national anthem, and what sports did Michael Jordan play professionally. It was a hilarious time as there are things that they didn't know, and so their answers caused some laughter throughout the evening.

Thursday's explorer's club went well, we did a Thanksgiving craft with them, which I of course was thrilled about :) . Friday we went out with the school, and helped clean up some gardens and a little litter picking.

Friday night with the teens in Harby was good, I was the one in charge of the older ones, and we talked about what we are thankful for, and why we are thankful, and to whom are we thankful. The time was good to just talk about what I am thankful for, and why I am thankful for them. We organized what we are thankful for into: 5 people, 4 things, 3 things in nature, 2 places/activities, and 1 thing that God has done in our lives this past year.

I know this week's post is somewhat short, but things are about to get really busy with December arriving tomorrow. We have lots of this going on from now to Christmas, including attempting to visit every home on the estate to tell them about our Christmas events.