I am not 100% over my illness but I am getting close. As Cecelia said this morning, “this house goes through tissues like they are going out of season!” If I never have to use another tissue in my life, it will be a-ok with me.
I woke up on Thursday and walked around all morning while I was getting ready for school saying “Happy Thanksgiving....Happy Thanksgiving!” I didn’t think that I would get wished Happy Thanksgiving many times during the day so I took it upon myself to do so. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to school and one of the members of staff had made a pumpkin pie for morning tea. With two Americans on staff (myself and the Assistant Principal) she said that she couldn’t resist. Now this pumpkin pie is not the same as it is at home but it was honkin’ good! She made it from scratch (that’s a lot of work) so it was light and fluffy and didn’t have as much of a zing or punch as the spices in canned pie filling or frozen pumpkin pie have. You see, here they normally eat pie like a vegetable--boil or bake it, sometimes skin and all. It is surprisingly very good (despite what my father said that when I told him about it...”OH YUCK!”). I taught the kids all about Thanksgiving, we wrote a list of things that we were thankful for, wrote what each of them would want if they had their own Thanksgiving dinner and made the infamous turkeys out of your hand! The kids loved it, they names their turkeys things like Frank, Joe and Bob.
The other notable thing about Thursday is that I had fairy bread at school. Now fairy bread is bread, with butter spread on it, and then hundreds and thousands put on the butter. What are hundreds and thousands, you say? That is just the question that I asked....SPRINKLES! Let’s just say that it sounds interesting and it IS interesting. The soft bread with the hard sprinkles is not really all that pleasant of a texture but it doesn’t taste bad...it doesn’t taste good either.
Friday morning was TERRIFIC! I woke up early so that I could call my family and wish THEM a Happy Thanksgiving (it was just before 1 in the afternoon on Thursday in New Mexico). It was so fun to talk to them--David answered the phone and was hilarious right off the bat. I talked to Paul, Mel, and Mom for a while and then David and Dad got on for the finale. Let me just say that David and Dad together on the phone is a lethal but hilarious combination. It was so good to talk to them and to hear all about the normal Thanksgiving preps. Mom was making the potatoes (my favorite) and the boys were watching football. I am sad that I missed it but I am sure they had a blast. I hope they ate those extra bits of stuffing and mashed potatoes for me! I love them all and can’t wait until I see them all again soon. Let’s face it...I have the coolest family in the world!
Friday also happened to be my best day at school yet. I got to be a part of teaching every lesson but one (which meant that I was teaching all day). I taught the kids to play Multiplication Baseball...they loved it! Every time that a multiplication problem totaled more than 30 it was a home and run and the kids would yell and throw “HOME RUN!” and throw their arms into the air. I had my Cardinals hat of course! Sue even thought it worked so well that she wants to know exactly what I did so that she can use it again...now THAT’S SUCCESS when even Sue is pleased. When we were on recess duty we took out oversized umbrellas for shade (it’s hot on the top oval and there is no shade). So there was Sue and I with our HUGE umbrellas and heaps of little Kinders and Second Years crammed in around us trying to get a bit of shade. I wish that there had been someone there to take a picture, cause I am sure it was quite a sight!
Yesterday was another busy Saturday. Sue and I went to the Farmer’s Market and I bought some amazing local grown cherries and Rocky Road. No my friends, not the ice cream but marshmallows and nuts covered in chocolate. I haven’t tried it yet but I will let you know how it goes. I ran into gobs of kids from school and Sue and I had a fun times wandering around the stalls and picking out little things. After that I made sugar cookies for the Branch Christmas Party that night. Let’s just say that cooking here is an adventure because you have to convert EVERYTHING--the butter is in huge blocks that is divided into grams, the oven is gas and labeled in Celsius, nothing is measured in ounces...ugh it’s a pain. We had the party that night and we all played water balloon volleyball and had a barbie (BBQ). I was soaked before the whole event even kicked off because filling up water balloons with Elders is dangerous business. If for some reason the balloon slipped while they were tying it, the darn thing inevitably came right at me. This whole Christmas in the summer thing is a little bizarre for me, I am not feeling it quite yet but I might get there.
It has been a fun weekend and I have even got the Garlicks talking like me. They say “that’s cool” all the time now...more then I do, in fact. Things here are going well and I am still enjoying every moment. Once I get over this cold I will be unstoppable for the next three weeks until David gets here and than the real adventure begin!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of joy and turkey. Enjoy those cold winter days and I am looking forward to talking to all of you when I return home!