Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the first Thanksgiving where I have never been home with my family (and that list will just keep growing this year, as I've never been gone for Christmas or my birthday either).  I could easily make a list of things that I am frustrated with in my life, but now is not the time.  Even though I am far from home, I am so blessed!

I am thankful for:

• warm days and cool nights (and missing Seattle's gloomiest day in 3 years!)
• supervisors who bring pumpkin pie to work
• country coordinators who share their pumpkin pie spice and support me through all my freak out moments
• fast and reliable internet and skype
• kittens to cuddle with at work
• family who love and support me
• a host family who has taken me in and accommodated all my (sometimes odd) requests
• friends who write me letters and send me numerous emails
• past and present YAGMs around the world who are accompanying me on this journey and working to change the world one relationship at a time
• relationships with all the other Mexico YAGMs
• the relative safety of having an American passport
• not feeling culturally obligated to get up early tomorrow morning to go shopping

I made my family roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes,  and pumpkin pie today.  This is just the first step, as all the Mexico YAGMs are cooking Thanksgiving dinner together during our retreat next week.  My brother ate some mashed potatoes, tried one bite of pumpkin pie (he doesn't like it), and then told his friends that his dinner was "muy rico" (very good), while I think my host mom was just happy to not have to cook for once.  My supervisor at ALEM bought a Costco pumpkin pie for everyone to share at work today, and then let me leave early so I would have time to cook.

This Thanksgiving has not been much like any of my previous Thanksgivings.  I'm not in a food coma (although who knows after our Thanksgiving dinner next week!), I didn't get to make or eat several of my favorite foods, and I'm not curled up in front of the fireplace with a movie and my cat.  But I know that I will have those experiences again, and in the meantime, I get to eat lots of tacos!