We are Thankful...

• for a glorious, sunny Thanksgiving Day.
• for Tony and Heidi Baird, an American LDS couple with four young children. Tony works at the U.S. Embassy, and offered to get some turkeys for the mission when the Embassy ordered some for their employees. The Baird's generously donated cans of pumpkin, stuffing mix, and cranberry sauce to the cause.
• for folks back home who sent brown sugar, oatmeal, graham cracker crumbs, etc. so we (three mission couple wives) could give the missionaries a taste of home cookin'. (The oatmeal was for the dessert of apple crisp which we served along with pumpkin chiffon pie, apple pie, and pumpkin bread. Think we overdid it?)
  
• that the frozen turkeys arrived a week and a half early so we had time to distribute them to the three couples in the most distant cities for their dinners.
  
• for five non-American missionaries, Elder Rispoli of Australia, Elder Abley of England, Sister Kennedy of England, Elder Harline from Canada, and Elder Çelaj of Albania, who were perfectly happy to join in our American tradition of stuffing the face...I mean turkey. AND, we can't forget to mention Elder and Sister Müller from Switzerland, who cheerfully cooked a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner in Durrës for 13 missionaries, five days before they leave us and return home.
• for beautiful choral Christmas music which I listened to at high volume while I raced about the kitchen all morning. Motivated me like an athlete getting pumped up for the championship game of a lifetime. I threw open the windows and let the street hear, also. Whooeeeee!
  
• for the oven and cooktop that didn't burn up (not to mention the kitchen) even though a terrible smell like burning electrical wire insulation filled the apartment.
  
• for Sisters Newhouse and Shupe who helped me prepare dinner for 34 people. We filled a 20-quart electric roaster with mashed potatoes--and the missionaries cleaned the pot! We had only a portion of the four turkeys left over and a couple pints of gravy.
• for my mother who taught me how to make a darn good Parker House Roll.
  
• for Marty who cheerfully washed up countless pots and pans over three days. Nothin' finer than a man with a dish towel slung over his shoulder.
• for Skype. It is wonderful to have the technology available to video chat with our family. It brings them so much closer to us. If we had to wait for a two-week old letter, we'd feel much farther away from home.
  
• for the hand of the Lord in our lives today. We are grateful to be serving Him in a foreign land. We missed our family on this traditional family day, but we know they were thinking and praying for us, as we were for them.