Being away from home is hard on me. I have an awesome family who I love very much and love spending time with. So I assumed the holiday season was going to be not fun and really hard. It's sad to be away from my family at this time, but I've come to realize that holidays on the race can be just as fun and are always very memorable.
This Thanksgiving, we got to include our Kenyan family in the festivities. We were blessd to have a big grocery store that had most of what we needed to make a traditional American Thanksgiving. On Thursday, Frank made us pumpkin pie (he buried it in charchol – they don't have ovens on this side of the world!) I also got to Skype in with my family at their celebration, which was so awesome to be able to see everybody!
On Saturday, our off day we had a big celebration. Frank and Erin spent the whole day in the kitchen while the rest of us went to some people's house. Frank and Erin made yummy breakfast, we went to an African feast, then we came home and had Thanksgiving dinner. Our whole day was eating!! I've never eaten so much in my life. The family is already asking us when we're going to have pie again, it was so good.
Because we were celebrating with people who had never heard of Thanksgiving before, we explained to them the meaning of Thanksgiving and why it's important. I think it was good for us to go back to the real reasons we celebrate. It's not about food, or football, but about being truly thankful for what we've been given. We all went around and told what we were thankful for and it;s made me really think in that last week what I am thankful for in my own life.
– I'm thankful for friends and family back home who are supporting me. I've got such an awesome cheering section!
– I'm thankful for my family on the race.
– I'm thankful for animals around here that let me pet them (I miss my cat and dog back home!)
– I'm thankful for Skype and Facebook and e-mail that lets me stay in communication with everyone.
– Most of I'm thankful that God has called me to the World Race. I'm so thankful I'm here!
