Thanksgiving in Costa Rica

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving!  Well, duh?!  But, in Costa Rica, there isn't the same hype about Thanksgiving as there is at home.  (Another duh I guess since Thanksgiving is a North American celebration and all.)  This past Thursday, I greatly missed the warmth of home, the joy of being with family, the Thanksgiving parade, and the comfort of the same food every year.  While "there's no place like home", we had a great Thanksgiving up at the Costa Rica Center (a.k.a., our campus)!  Of course, I have a few pictures to share:

 

Mario (our amazing chef) and all of the food!  Check out the HUGE Turkey

Our big Thanksgiving meal together

Nanda and I helped out with the little pumpkin pies

I'm not usually a fan of pumpkin pie, but these were SO GOOD!

Taking some fun pictures with Ticcia and Emily (and my homemade Thanksgiving outfit!)

As it is always good to name what you are thankful for, I'm going to write out a list of 10 gifts from our loving God in my life.

1)   Moments in which I am completely present and aware of God's Beautiful Presence about me (sitting on the bench outside, walking on my street back and forth, recognizing how God has perfectly guided my life)

2)  Unexpected kindnesses of others, like one woman on the bus who rode with me all the way past her stop to make sure I got to where I needed to go

3)  Skyping with family and friends at consistent and spontaneous times

4)  Laughing a lot, which I do very often here with the group and with my family

5)  Sharing meals together, especially with my family and Josh's family

6)  Listening to music that reminds me of a certain time in my life ("Hold Me Jesus" by Rich Mullins, "Entre Mis Brazos" from Peru, "Singing in the Rain/Umbrella" by Glee, "Wavin' Flag (Spanish Version)", "Tennessee Christmas" by Amy Grant) 

7)  Finally being able to take blood pressure!

8)  Way over-working on a paper because I find it so interesting

9)  Starting and finishing good books ("Room", "A Daughter's Dream", "One Thousand Gifts", "Gracias!")

10)  Living in another country, learning the language (making many mistakes with the language), discovering a different culture, making new friendships 

Just a bit more :)  In case Hallmark and Cracker Barrel didn't give it away 4 months ago, what special day comes after Thanksgiving?  Christmas!  In my family, we normally put up our Christmas tree sometime after Thanksgiving.  Here, they start a lot earlier!  One of the student's family started putting up decorations in October!  Costa Rica is a Christmas-celebrating country without a doubt.  At least, they sure celebrate it commercially!  Here's some pictures of us putting up the tree up at campus and then at Silvia's house as well:

The HUGE tree we cut from our "backyard"

Helping to put up the ornaments ;)

A pipe-cleaner ornament I made to put on our tree

The tree all lit-up!!!

Putting together Silvia's tree

I was granted the great privilege and responsibility of putting the star on the tree!

We made some pipe-cleaner ornaments for Silvia's tree too.  I tried to make a snowflake and my host mom made an "H" for her name :)

Cooking a little dinner after putting up the tree

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree