Thanksgiving in a Box

Well, a lot has happened since my last blog. But I feel as if I’m too far gone to fill in everything that has happened. So I’ll just start from Thanksgiving and move on from there.

The day before Thanksgiving I was a little bit worried. I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to pull off the Thanksgiving that we had in our minds. We had a few things against us: our stove and oven are bobo (as Hanna would say), we didn’t have all the same ingredients that we have in the States, and we were short a few pots and pans. But we were determined to have a Thanksgiving like none other.

A few weeks prior my mom had sent a few boxes with Thanksgiving ingredients; Thanksgiving in a box. However, it was Thanksgiving day and we hadn’t received them. That morning we made our way to the post office to see if our packages had arrived. Hanna opened up the mailbox to find a few slips indicating that we had packages waiting for us. One of the slips was for me, but I knew that my mom had sent a box before the Thanksgiving ones, I was a little bummed. But I figured that we could just use the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal #2.

As we sat waiting for the immigrations officer to look through all of our boxes a lady told us she had more slips. She started to read off the names, all of which were people from AMOR projects. Two of the slips had my name on them. Thanksgiving in two boxes had arrived! I was so excited.

The rest of the morning was spent picking up other ingredients for our Thanksgiving feast. Around 1:00 we walked in the door arms loaded with bags of Thanksgiving feast ingredients. We all set to work peeling, chopping, mixing and all the other things that go into preparing a grand meal.

At 7:00 that evening our table was filled with just about every Thanksgiving dish one should have. Hanna and Stephanie had decorated the room quite festively and everyone was gathered around the table. We had our Thanksgiving prayer and as soon as the word “amen” was said, it all went crazy. Everyone was trying to get every dish on their plates, it was loud, it was unorganized, it was great.

I sat down with my plate full of yumminess and a smile on my face. I was so excited to see creamy mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, the best turkey I’ve ever had, stuffing, cranberry sauce, empanadas and gluten (for the veggies) all piled on my plate. I couldn’t believe we’d pulled it all off. Food-wise, it was pretty much like home. We even had two pumpkin pies and an apple pie.

Thanksgiving here was good. I did miss my family. I missed cooking with my mom, and having my brother and dad stuff themselves two or three times over. I missed the cool weather, wearing a sweater at the table, and going for a hike to try to get over our food comas. But I loved being here with my Student Missionary and Peruvian family. It was great having everyone crowd around the table. My favorite part of the evening was when we all went around the table and said what we’re thankful for. I am truly thankful for the chance to be down here. I’m glad I got to have a Peruvian/American thanksgiving. All my Thanksgivings run together, but I think this one will stick out as one of my favorites.