My mom cooking up a storm. Notice the cooked pumpkin on the stove. My mom has to make her own pumpkin puree for her pumpkin pie.
Me and my mom slaving away...
The boys eating some apples watching us cook
Amber got a little fever while we were there and wasn't feeling very good on Thanksgiving. I found the remote to the air conditioner that was missing and my dad said he'd pay $10 to the person that found it. So when I sat down on my mom's bed and felt it tucked into the covers I started screaming that I found it! Well, I scared poor Amber to death and she cried and cried. She's normally not so jumpy but she wasn't feeling like herself.
The turkey cooking away. Funny story--turkeys in Brazil are a lot more expensive than in the United States. When my mom, dad, Barry, and I went shopping to get the turkey we found some smaller ones at Sam's Club so my mom bought two of them. She said she hoped that she didn't see any bigger ones at the next store or else she'd be mad she got these ones. Sure enough, at our next stop we found great big turkeys for sale. My dad was reluctant to buy another one since we already had two! Well, my mom talked him into and it cost $85 US dollars! So in all we probably spent $175 on turkeys. My dad wasn't too happy about that but when we cooked it up and ate it on Thanksgiving we all agreed that it was the best turkey we had ever had!!
I made some little cards to label everything we were going to eat
And I made these little turkey name place settings
Setting the table
Pres. and Sis. Hart arranging the centerpiece
The beautiful table
My mom and dad had the mission office Elders over for dinner with us. There were 5 of them that came. It was so fun to meet these cute missionaries!
All the food waiting to be eaten. Mmm...it's making me hungry just thinking about it!
You should have see how high the Elders piled their plates! This picture doesn't do it justice. You'd think they had been starved or something. It was hilarious!
The Elders took their names on the turkeys and put it over their missionary tags. I thought they should have worn them around like that the rest of the day.
Me and Amber in her Thanksgiving dress. She was adorable!
Eating our delicious meal together. All that hard work was worth it!
The two Elders on the right are Brazilian so of course they had never celebrated Thanksgiving before. Most of the food was new to them so it was fun to see if they liked it. When we asked what they thought of it Elder Leite trying to describe what he liked said, "I don't know what I'm eating, but I like it." The other cute Elder had never had cheeesecake before. I made the cheesecake and it was delicious if I do say so myself. I was interested to see what he thought of it. After he ate it he said, "How have I lived 19 years without ever tasting cheesecake?" I guess he liked it!
My mom and I made 4 pies for dessert--French Apple, Pumpkin, Chocolate Cream, and Strawberry Cheesecake. And yes, I had a slice of each one. They were to die for!
After the Elders went home we just hung around the mission home playing games and relaxing. It was one of the best Thanksgivings ever and I'm so glad we got to spend it with my parents!
