So Many Things to be Thankful for This Year!

I know I'm a little over due on my Thanksgiving post, but we had such an amazing weekend with great friends that we have made out here, I just have to share!

A few months back, we were told about these cabins on another base up north, and that a few families from my church were reserving them for thanksgiving. Being that this would be our first real thanksgiving with no family at all, we jumped at the chance and reserved our cabin.

I wasn't expecting much, but I was very pleasantly surprised at our accommodations and the proximity that all the cabins were to each other so that the parents could play...um, I mean Kids could play (wink) with each other.

Here are the cabins we stayed in for 4 days:






On the morning of Thanksgiving, we found a nicely-gated field where the kids AND the adults could play some football...and yes, even I played and made a few catches, but mostly, I just ran around pretending I knew what I was doing.


John, or course, was right at home, as he loves to play the sport.

The kids had a great time flying their kites, playing soccer and watching the adults have some fun:




And when the parents finished their game, then the real boys came out to play!

Ben even made a touchdown! Father like son I guess!



We all then headed back to our cabins to begin our preparations for Thanksgiving dinner for 14 adults and 20 kids:

All the kids patiently waiting for dinner...

Out of all 6 cabins, only one of them had an oven, which made for some interesting preparations of food:



This picture was taken AFTER we finished eating....way too much food! It lasted all of us two more full meals the next day...and plenty of pie to last another few days.



After dinner, we set up a little treasure hunt, and sent the kids running around the area looking for clues.




When they found the treasure, it was filled with toys, candy and a night-time movie.

All the kids got in their PJ's and enjoyed a movie while the parents cleaned up and relaxed a bit.

The next day, we just let the kids run around and play at the playground that was nicely situated near the cabins.





Later that day, all the women took off to go have a real japanese experience...make your own Shisa!

We arrived at this beautiful shisa-making shop that was set on top of a hill that over-looked the valley. It was the perfect setting for making my shisa



You start with this.....add some red clay

And end up with something scary like this



While us ladies got our creativity going, the boys took all the kids to the beach...and surprisingly everyone survived. :)





I don't think I have ever met such a fun bunch of people, and it made it so much easier to be away from family this time of year.

Thanks to all our friends for making it such a memorable one for us!