My Thanksgiving Story! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of you!

This year was the very first year that I have ever spent Thanksgiving away from family! Normally my whole family, my brother in law, my grandparents from my dads side, and all my cousins and usually some friends of theirs get together and celebrate Thanksgiving together! This is what my family did at home... but I got to spend it with my FAMILY here!

(From Left) Kate, Nick, Allison, Me, Caleb, Cristen!!

I wasn't really expecting to make any "real" close friendships while being over here.. I was just thinking of the fact that I am only here for 3 months as are most of the other friends of mine, and often spend the weekends traveling, so I just wasn't thinking that I was going to make lots of friends, but I was WAY WRONG! I have mat so many WONDERFUL people while being over here and grown close to many of them! And honestly they have COMPLETELY MADE MY TRIP! I couldn't image the past three months without them all! Aside from my friends from my Basketball team, the majority of my friends are from the United States. We were first just thinking that we would go out to eat at this place called the Carvery that serves "Christmas Dinner" all the time, that is Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and green beans... most of the basic Thanksgiving dishes, but the more Cristen thought about it the more she just didn't feel right about EATING OUT for Thanksgiving! So...we decided to COOK!!! Cristen and I went to Tesco and got all the groceries for the various dishes on Wednesday. We really had to strategies our plan of action though because we have ONE POT and ONE PAN... hahaha! Wednesday night Cristen made the pumpkin pie, and her dad's green bean casserole that isn't really a casserole ha, which was perfect because we didn't have a casserole dish :) She also made the cranberry sauce. I made my grandma's 7-up salad and Caleb made these chocolate butterscotch rice crispy things! Thursday morning Cristen and I both had class! Afterwards we started the rest! We made mashed potatoes, two different kinds of stuffing, the turkey, the gravy, salad, and then heated up store bought apple pie and also homemade apple cider (my favorite)!!! Nick made this corn dish and sweet potatoes and Allison supplied some drinks! THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD!!

We all sat down and ate Feasted together while sharing what we were thankful for and just enjoyed each others company:) IT was LOVELY!!



Caleb getting ready to CHOW DOWN!! :)



Miss Cristen making Potatoes



Pumpkin pie :) and Chocolate thingys yum yum!





Allison, Caleb, Cristen!





:)



I must admit that I was getting a little sad because I was missing Thanksgiving at home! And I am sad that I did, because I miss my family so much, but I could not have asked for a better day here! This really helped me realize that Thanksgiving is about spending time with FAMILY and being Thankful for what you have and stuff... but Family does not always have to be your mom, dad, siblings, cousins, aunts, grandparents etc. Yes they are my immediate family, and I just think I have the GREATEST one :) but I sat at a table surrounded by 7 other people who love me and care for me and who I love and care for in return, 7 people who all 3 months ago arrived at Swansea, Wales not knowing anyone else and met each other for the first time and have been together ever since! THEY are my FAMILY here and I am just so thankful for them all!!!:)

Words cannot really describe how thankful I am for EVERYTHING that I have. This amazing opportunity, my family, my friends, my boyfriend, the fact that I live in a free country that has FREE bathrooms (ha joke) the fact that my brother is recovering and I received a letter today from him and he seems happier than ever!!!!!!!! I am healthy, and my family and friends are healthy. I just can't even list everything because God has blessed me to where I can't even measure!

At a dinner a few of us went to hosted by the school Wednesday night, a guy got up and gave a little speech/sermon on the fullness of life and how it is only complete with Christ... and I couldn't quite get his relation to what he was talking about with Thanksgiving at the time but I was reading and came across a verse:

John 6:35, Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

I am the first to admit that when I am giving thanks I am thanking God for the things I HAVE AT THE MOMENT and completely missing the big picture... that I have CHRIST for ETERNITY! The FULLNESS of life comes from Christ... I will never go hungry and will never thirst because God has blessed us ALL with the gift of SALVATION through his son!

So if any of you are going through some hard times, maybe its the first Thanksgiving that you are spending without a special loved one in the family, or maybe its not as big because your struggling financially, or maybe you are off in a different country and haven't made many friends, no matter the circumstance, just know that God Loves You!!

A HUMAN TURKEY?? :)
Head= Cristen
Body= Allison
Feathers=The Rest of US!

-Lissa