Happy holidays!

We spent all day Thanksgiving Thursday teaching school and in meetings, so it didn't feel so much like Thanksgiving. We left school at 5:30 and came home to a dinner cooked by our house helper. It was yummy but not at gorge yourself feast status. Now before you start feeling sorry for us, read the next paragraph.

Friday was our Thanksgiving. We went shopping for a pumpkin and whipped cream in the morning and came back to a day of baking and watching the Lions. I was commissioned to make pumpkin pie and Alan decided he would make pumpkin cake. The entire pumpkin was used! It was the biggest one they had and we yielded about 5 cups of pumpkin puree out of it. Chinese pumpkins are long and more squash like, I found a picture on google, check it out for yourself.



We only had small pie pans (about half normal size) so I ended up making 4 pumpkin pies. It was fun to do the whole process from scratch (except for the can of sweetened condensed milk). I decided to make 2 more chocolate meringue pies.

Ok, I failed to mention that we had a thanksgiving potluck dinner with our fellow staff. I like pies, but I wasn't planning on eating them all myself. The problem was that the party was across the complex and on the 6th floor. How were we supposed to bring 6 pies and a double layer cake to our feast? I looked around for a flat surface to carry it all on and found a side of the late Colby's cage. We loaded it up and carried it over. Alan did it solo on the stairs, so strong :-)

The feast was great. We had a 22 lb turkey and loads of delicious sides. I had 3-4 plates of food. We rested for awhile and then tackled dessert. The teachers were weak and barely put a dent in the desserts. We ended up bringing back more than half of what we brought! I was happy with how the pumpkin pie turned out. The fresh pumpkin seemed a lot better than the canned stuff!

It is great to spend time with friends. We have a lot to be thankful for!



-rachel