On Thursday I enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving meal with my flatmates and Lucia (one of our program administrators). I started cooking/baking at 1:30 that afternoon in the sunlit living room while listening to the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. It was a calm, quiet day and I appreciated the opportunity for my hands to do manual work -- peeling apples and potatoes, mixing and rolling out roll and pie crust dough, chopping herbs for the turkey -- while my mind could be still. At 6:00 that evening my wonderful flatmates joined me in the kitchen to help with the last-hour details: setting the table, trimming the green beans, checking the rolls in the oven, carving our turkey breast, and mashing the potatoes. It was my first Thanksgiving as head chef (or as any chef at all, in fact) and I am proud to say that it was a smashing success! The food tasted so good and though I have much enjoyed tasting new foods and adjusting to new flavours here in Britain, I must admit how comforting it was to taste my mother's rolls and her famous apple pie, even though she wasn't there to make them herself. Here are some pictures to capture the day:
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| Rolls rising in my room - it was too cold downstairs! |
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| The day's work station: one end of the dining table |
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| Early in the day: apples simmering and yams boiling |
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| Sweet Lucy helping cook her first ever Thanksgiving meal |
At Kathryn's request, we each went around the table and mentioned a few of the things for which we are grateful. I was grateful for the ability to read and the ability to travel - I know it sounds silly, but I really AM grateful for the opportunity to study, learn and think about new things like I am now doing. I am so grateful for my wonderful family, for the love and friendship I share with each of my siblings and for the great wisdom of my very good parents. As the challenges and decisions in life grow more difficult, more confusing, more multi-faceted, I am made more aware of the great blessing their counsel and advice has been and is for me. Additionally, I am grateful for my patient and supportive husband, who has worked so hard this semester and has suffered alone so that I can get this degree from the top university in the world. I am grateful that in one week I will be back in his arms. Finally, I am grateful for the great plan of redemption, which a loving Heavenly Father provided for His children so that we could all return to Him one day like Him, having learned for ourselves the difference between good and evil, suffering and great joy. I am grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ, who was willing to live and die that the Father's plan might be fulfilled.
I am reminded of the simple words spoken to me in my setting-apart blessing last week. Brother Robles (from Spain) speaks little English, but was able to communicate the Spirit's gentle reminder well enough when he said, "You have a very nice life."
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