Happy Holidays! - 11/25/06

We received several e-mails and MySpace comments wishing us a Happy Thanks-giving and a Happy Holiday Season! Thank you to everyone who remembered us, we love getting comments and e-mails—they are our connection to home Thanks mom for the cards, we laughed, our neighbors laughed, everyone who reads them laughs Thanks also to Auntie Reda and Uncle Marv who also sent a funny card and a wonderful and unexpected package to help get us into the Holiday Season. Auntie Reda, the candles are soo cute and I used them to decorate for our Thanksgiving meal

Yes, Nathan and I did celebrate Thanksgiving with all of our brothers and sisters living in the States. Turkey isn’t popular here, so I roasted a chicken. It’s not that there aren’t turkeys around here, there are plenty of wild turkey. But, they look more like peacocks than those big, ugly, loud, brown American turkeys. And who wants to shoot a peacock? I think that’s probably why turkey isn’t a popular dinner food. Anyway, I roasted a chicken, made mashed potatoes, Beans ala Warner, stuffing, gravy, biscuits, and even a pumpkin pie Yes I MADE A PUMPKIN PIE I have never even watched someone make a pie before, and I made one That means I made the crust people, does anyone understand how amazing that is? What’s even more amazing is that it was good The pie was perfect, the crust was moist and flaky- I can bake, without fancy baking tools like a “pastry cutter ” Hey, I know what a pastry cutter is Wow, who new?

As most of you would probably guess, Belize did not celebrate Thanksgiving this past Thursday. What you probably wouldn’t guess, is that Belize actually does celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Sunday in November; although I do not know what they are observing on their Thanksgiving Day. I have asked a few people what they celebrate on Thanksgiving and they mostly say, “It’s a day to give thanks ” Oh okay, now I get it, sorry, the name completely threw me off there…Thanksgiving was observed in Blue Creek on November 5th and it was celebrated in the Fellowship Hall directly following the normal church service. Apparently, no one eats Thanksgiving dinner in their own homes with their family, the entire community celebrates together. I think this is a wonderful idea, but there are very few communities where you could actually pull this off. I have not lived in too many places where the entire community can fit into one church. Besides, the Blue Creek Family Tree only comes from 3 or 4 different roots and the branches are slowly but surely marrying into one tree, so it makes sense for the entire community to celebrate this historically family holiday together.

Halloween also passed without anyone in Blue Creek taking much notice. Apparently Mennonites do not celebrate Halloween, since they believe it to be “Satan’s Holiday.” Mom sent a great package around Halloween with a nice card with carved pumpkins on the front. Our company would see the card and ask if we celebrate Halloween at home. I enjoyed their reactions when I replied, “Of course ” Most of them do not believe “good Christians” should celebrate Halloween. That’s when I would proudly pull up the picture Lindsay (our sis-in-law) sent of our niece, Jocelyn, in her baby blue gorilla costume Look how cute Halloween can be? How could there be anything wrong with a day when a child can look this adorable? It didn’t really seem to soften any hearts over here, but I sure enjoyed this little picture of home

Although Blue Creek does not observe Halloween, that didn’t prevent us from having our dinner interrupted by one lone group of “trick-or-treaters.” I put that in quotes because these were the laziest trick-or-treaters I have ever seen. They didn’t even take the time to dress in costumes but they still expected a treat Someone needs to sit these kids down and have a serious talk about taking pride in your work. Anyway, Nathan answered the door and there were 4 giggling high school and junior high boys singing, “Trick or treat, smell my feet give me something good to eat Make it big, not too small, about the size of Montreal ” Oh yes, that’s right, we are surrounded by Canadian Belizeans, just when I had almost forgotten We didn’t have any candy on-hand but we were enjoying a wonderful tropical fruit salad with papaya, apples, apple bananas, and mandarins. Each of the boys got a big spoonful of “God’s candy”—shockingly, they ate it, shouted their “thank yous” and moved on.

So here we go, the Holiday Season is in full swing and we are finally experiencing what locals calls a “cold front.” The other day it was 14 degrees Celsius in the morning, which means it was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone is wearing pants and long sleeves and a few of them have even put on gloves and scarves While some of you laugh at this, I should probably admit that Nathan and I are pretty chilly too. We borrowed an extra heavy blanket from a friend because we were shivering in our sleep and we have been wearing long sleeves all week. In our defense, I think the humidity here makes the temperature feel cooler just as it makes it feel hotter on warm days. I also think it makes my vision a little funny, because on our way home from the restaurant the other night, I saw a home, surrounded by palm trees, decorated in icicle lights…could someone please send me contacts, cuz that just can’t be right…