Thanksgiving Abroad

Well, we survived our first BIG Holiday abroad. Sure, birthdays were slightly blah without family around, but Thanksgiving... I mean come on.
Well, to lessen the blow of "celebrating" the holiday without the warm oven lovin of our friends and family back home, we decided to invite several of our friends we've made here in Korea. It was a great feast! Taylor and I provided homemade chicken and noodles, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread, and fried apple pie. The rest was provided by the guests! And boy did we have a bounty of food, even the single guys impressed with their homemade sides!
I was thankful that I had started preparations a week and a half in advance, making a different freezable portion of the meal each day or so leading up to the weekend of. It was a busy couple of weeks, but saved me the stress and agrivation of cooking all day the day of. So Saturday we started the day with steamed cinnamon rolls and caramel coffee sauce... Um, yah, not a low calorie Thanksgiving! haha! It was a great morning of relaxing and enjoying the company of those who came out early, the night before! We slowly made our way to one of the local towns to get last minute ingredients and then snacked our way to Thanksgiving dinner, which we had around 2:30 after most everyone had arrived! It was SOOOO yummy, and heart-warming to see such a great group of foreigners fill our house to make it feel homey for the Holidays! So good in fact, that we plan to have a New years bash as well! :) The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to roll ourselves from one place to the next while playing games, laughing, snacking on leftovers that we shouldn't have, and anticipating dessert! As the sun began to set, the smell of Fried pie crust filled the house and soon, the yummy pie filled our bellies. At this point, our home was now filled with the sounds of people grunting as they did... well... just about anything! haha! Oh the Thanksgiving grunts! That is when you know you have eaten well!
Soon friends were packing up and heading out. A few stayed behind for a mini sleep over at the Lett house and it did not take long before everyone was passed out after a long day of eating, laughing with and at Corin as he entertained us with his musical skills and screaming, and more eating. Life is good. God is GREAT! WE feel so blessed to have been able to host the meal in a house and with the resourses HE provided to us! Not to mention the friends He so lovingly brought into our lives! SO Blessed.

Now to backtrack just a tad... I will expand upon the Corin remarks.
Friday night a few of our guests came out early. (I say early as in they came Friday instead of Saturday, not that they came out early in the day... in fact, no one arrived before 8:30pm that night.) The first set of friends got here around 8:30 and we were able to pick them up from the bus station. Corin was super excited as he had been anticipating the arrival of friends all day! So... we let him stay up past his bedtime to greet them from the backseat of the Accent! :) After 30 minutes of playing and "catching" up with the Boys, Corin was in need of sleep and I was not sure he'd make it to the next arrival, which was set for a little past 9:30. So off to bed he went. Well, after our next set of friends arrived, we sat up and talked for hours before deciding to go to sleep. We typically let Corin fall asleep on our bed when we go to Hotels and then move him to a pallet on the floor and take over the bed ourselves... so we decided to do the same his evening for the sake of one of our friends who would have otherwise had to sleep on the floor. So, Taylor moved Corin to a badded warm part of the floor and Liz took over the littel twin bed. No problems.... until the next morning. 5:15am rolled around far too soon for us all as we heard the blood curdling scream of Corin and then the sound of him racing out of his room and into ours. As Liz recapped the story for us over coffe later that morning, we were enlightened as to the details.

5:15am
Corin wakes up. Walks to his bed. Pulls blanket back to find Miss Ewizabef. Miss Ewizabef says hi. Corin says hi. Corin asks Miss Ewizabef what she is doing. Miss Ewizabef replies, "I am sleeping, would you like to lay down with me?" Corin replies, "Yes I would." Corin lies down on floor next to the bed and goes quiet. Miss Ewizabef assumes he is asleep. Corin bolts up to sitting position, cranks head around to get a good hard look at Miss Ewizabeth. Corin widens eyes. Corin screams. Miss Ewizabef sits up in shock. Not able to form words before Corin bolts for the door, she watched as he races out of the room, closing the door behind him.
5:20ish am
Corin enters parents' bedroom. Tears rolling down his cheeks, he pulls daddy's side of the covers back, climbs into bed and immediately falls asleep.
7:20am
Corin approaches his bedroom door. Opens and walks in. Says hello to Miss Ewizabef as if nothing ever happened.

The end.

LL