She Said: Counting Our Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What a wonderful day we had. I have to be honest and say that I never imagined our first Thanksgiving overseas could be as fantastic as today was. Brian and I have been in Caracas just over a month now, and I am amazed at the wonderful friends we have made here. As I have mentioned before, I am blown away every day by the generosity and kindness of the embassy community here.

Today started as a lazy morning. Brian used his creative cooking skills once again to whip up sweet potato pancakes and bacon in the kitchen. It was really nice to be able to just hang out and visit and enjoy our coffee. It really felt like the weekend. Around 3:00ish, we headed to our new friends' house. It still didn't really feel like Thanksgiving. Several embassy families were in attendance and the hostess had prepared a traditional turkey along with several side dishes (mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mushroom and potato gratin, lentils). The food was great and the company was outstanding. I really enjoyed getting to know some of Brian's colleagues better. As the sun faded and the city grew dark, we sat with our cups of coffee and pumpkin pie and suddenly it felt like Thanksgiving. I looked around the table and realized just how lucky we are. Today I feel so blessed, blessed to have family that is so caring you can feel their love from afar, to have new friends here that already feel a bit like family, to have friends from different stages in our life that are thinking of us and wishing us well, to have a beautiful place to live and an opportunity to explore a new place with my best friend. I am truly blessed.

So, yes, for those of you out there wondering what it's like to be in a foreign country for Thanksgiving, it's a bit strange. We missed being with our families and I don't think that's something that ever goes away. It was always hard even when we were in the states. What I can say, however, is that being with people who share lots of the same traditions and who can come together to share those in a place that feels foreign is a really neat experience. Someone once told me that we're the most patriotic when we're away from the US and I definitely think that's true for me. It was almost like we had this great secret today when we walked into the street all dressed up to head to dinner in the middle of a Thursday. Venezuelans looked at us strangely and I felt like we had this insider secret about our own traditions and our own special holiday. The few people I did talk to about it were really interested in hearing about our traditions and the history of the holiday. It was fun to share something that is special to us and is truly American.

Well, I have lots more to share about things we've done since I last blogged, but today was so wonderful and feels so very American that I think I'll leave it at that tonight. To all of you who are a part of our lives, thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!