Thanksgiving with our Saudi Family

During the holiday season, it could be really easy for me to dwell on the fact that we are far from family and "missing out" on all of the holiday festivities; however, I am choosing to have a different perspective.  Last weekend we celebrated our fourth (yes, fourth!) Thanksgiving in Saudi Arabia.  Leading up to the big day, I had been reflecting on how many incredible blessings we have in our lives, and how God has providentially taken care of our needs in so many ways.   I am SOOOOOOOOO thankful for our beautiful daughter, Savannah, that the Lord has privileged us to parent.  I am so thankful for an amazing husband who works so hard to provide for his family and then comes home works just as hard to be an excellent father and spouse.  I am blessed with an amazingly supportive family that is willing to facetime at all hours of the day.  :) I am thankful that the Lord has blessed my husband with a great job that he enjoys and has afforded us some amazing opportunities.  The blessing I was most reminded of this year is what I like to call our "Saudi Family."  In His divine providence, God blessed us with like-minded believing friends in abundance over here!  It has been an amazing experience to be a part of each other's lives as we do the Saudi thing together.  We've laughed, we've cried, and we've watched each other's families grow and expand.  So, if I can't spend Thanksgiving with my blood family, my Saudi family is the next best thing!

This year we hosted our Thanksgiving feast here at our house. I braved cooking a turkey for the first time, and I must say it was delicious.  Major thanks go to my friend Cherie for walking me through it!

Thawing it out and brining the day before.

The finished product!  Looks good doesn't it!

Thursday is a weekend day for us, so it was wonderful to be able to relax and enjoy the entire day with family and friends.  Everyone came over about 4:30 and had a fantastic time feasting and hanging out.

Tucker and Savannah

Dancing!

More dancing!

Talking to her PillowPet Unicorn.

Tucker reading to Mr. Bill.

The food was fantastic!  We had lots of great dishes, and more desserts than we knew what to do with. (Aren't leftovers a great thing- especially when it's dessert!)

The Delicious Spread!

The Dessert Table

Dinner!!!!!!  Little girl loved turkey!

Tucker enjoying his Thanksgiving dinner!

The Crew

Just as we had all sat down to dinner, the doorbell rang and we had the most wonderful surprise visitor!!!!  It was Sadju, the driver who took us to the hospital when I was in labor.  Two months after Savannah was born, Sadju went home to India and then returned to Saudi with a new job.  While we were so happy for him, we were so sad to lose such a beloved driver!  Sadju happened to be on the compound and we are sooooo glad that he stopped by!  This was the first time he'd seen Savannah in over a year.  :)  It was such a special treat!

 After dinner, we headed inside for another special event!  Our friends Stephanie and Micah were able to bring their Slingbox technology over so we were able to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live from the States!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

We realized right before we put Savannah down for the night that we hadn't taken a family picture throughout the day.  Well, let's just say Savannah didn't appreciate having to pose for a picture right before bed!  LOL!  It was comical!

The best we could do!  :)

Savannah got one last picture with her Aunt Heather.  I have a picture of Heather holding Savannah last year at Thanksgiving, and I wanted to make sure I got one of them together again.  It's funny because a lot has changed in a year.  Heather just gave birth to her precious son Luke a week and a half before Thanksgiving.  I wanted to get a picture of me holding him this year, but I had the sniffles and didn't want to give that to their sweet bundle of joy.  There's always next year!  :)

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out, watching the parade or football, playing games, and just enjoying the time together.  We truly do have so much to be thankful for!