What have I to ask beside?

Typically, Thanksgiving weekends are dominated by thoughts of a meal around the table with family, a few friends and autumn yellow, orange and brown colours to brighten up the memories.  For me, however, one of my most favourite times associated with Thanksgiving is the one spent in China 15 years ago.  My American friend, Tonya, and I were still new to the province, new to our school and fairly new to each other.  We were feeling homesick regardless of it being a family holiday for me.  Making any dinner was still a challenge for us (still can be for me!), so a homey Thanksgiving meal was certainly out of the question.  We opted for pancakes. 

I think this was really the first thing we'd tried cooking (we'd been boiling lots of pre-packaged 'meals' up until this point).  Not knowing the heat of the stove, we quickly had a smoke-filled apartment and very burned batter in the pan. We rushed to open my door, finding on my doorstep two students.  

"Miss Ann, what are you making?!"  Embarrassed, we showed them and got an Asian-style, "Tsk, tsk!"  We were made to sit on stools, then they marched into the kitchen, grabbed my bottle of oil and poured half of it into the pan.  We were then 'treated' to deep fried circles of dough - we really had no choice as they were take-charge kind of girls!  Aside from the gut-ache we later had, the beauty of the evening was having such a good laugh (after the students had left) that all tears were gone (for that day, anyway).  Helps me associate Thanksgiving with the unexpected gifts which may not seem like blessings at the time.  And it also helps me feel no pressure to cook up a turkey myself - I'm very content with a pancake dinner for Thanksgiving (which S kindly took care of!).

We were, however, blessed by the kindness of two couples over the weekend where in both cases,  the husband is a co-worker of S but they also attend the church we've been checking out.  And both of them were also very sensitive to the challenge for us of enjoying a meal while trying to have our young kids sit around a table.  Arlyn and Judith invited us over Saturday night for a backyard hot-dog roast instead, and the weather complied wonderfully.  We had a really nice time conversing with them while the kids enjoyed the backyard and their older children - a super nice sibling group of three.  A and their seven year old hit it off really well.  

Monday night found us in a beautiful mid-20s home in the Wolseley area of the city (the 'Granola Belt' of Winnipeg, much like Commercial Drive, but not very 'commercial' nor so ethnically diverse).  Grant and Lois had invited their niece and her husband over, as well as their nephew and his young daughter.  They wisely fed the kids first, took them out for a walk to the park, then sat them in front of a video while the adults all had dinner together.  It worked wonderfully.  We appreciated their sensitivity and their kindness to include us.  

A pre-dinner puppet show

A post-dinner zone out.  Who knew Curious George could be so scary!

As for the rest of the week and weekend, we did have much to be thankful for, including:

Great weather to still get out and explore parks:

Crazy kids to make us laugh:

And crazy kids to build our character:

Safety.  A's school had a fire mid-week with styrofoam and wood roofing materials at the side rapidly going up in flame over the lunch hour.  When we hopped in the van to go pick A up after school, I suddenly didn't want the kids music, despite my pretty high tolerance for it.  I ejected the CD and it so happened that the radio was tuned to the local news.  " . . . the children are all safely waiting at the community centre to be picked up.  Locals said that at one point, the smoke was so black the school building could not be seen.  Children were crying and yelling in the school yard, but the teachers seem to have done a good job gathering them out of harms' way.  For those of you just joining us, we are talking about the fire that happened earlier this morning at Ecole Laura Secord . . . . "  What?!  

That fifteen minute drive to A's school was suddenly far too long!!  While it would have been nice to have had a phone call from the school (somehow they missed contacting me), I was just so thankful for what I felt was God's care in allowing me to hear about it on the radio before I pulled up to her barricaded school surrounded by fire trucks!  That would have been a real panic.  It all worked out as well as it could have.  Thankfully, A and the younger children were all outside already.  While it was scary - with children scrambling to make sense of what was happening or yelling for siblings - the teachers directed them to the end of the field, then organized them into a local community centre.  A did well, admitting, "Well, I did cry a little bit but then I was okay."  I'd certainly have done the same!  I just felt badly that she had to wait 3 hours before I rescued her from the centre, as she'd had to stay seated on the floor with nothing to do!  A enjoyed a long weekend afterward (and timed it well to get a cold so she didn't end up missing a day of school!).  

Interesting weather - the kids have loved watching the intense rain, the lightening and the hail.  According to Iz, hail tastes yummy!

A little extra time to be together was nice, too.  It's always more fun to have S join us at the playground.

All in all, there was much to give thanks for (there always is, even when its harder to see).  While we would have enjoyed spending the holiday with many of you, it was still a good weekend and we count our blessings.  

ps - My apologies for the overload of photos.  The weather is changing and we'll soon be stuck indoors much more of the time!