Preston coined this term, and I thought it was a good one for us as “aliens”.
I moved the laptop to the kitchen counter so I could make sure the potatoes didn’t boil over while I was doing this. My family would remember the smell of boiled over potato water on the stove because of the many times it happened when I was in charge of cooking the potatoes for dinner. Alas, The Beverly Hillbillies were on at the same time and were quite the distraction: boiled over, then burned. Unfortunately, right before I started this post I was answering an email and, you guessed it, sputter and sizzle and now I’m just hoping I can skip the burned stage. I shall remain vigilant. By the way, who would have known that the Beverly Hillbillies would have been helpful to me 40 years later. It doesn’t even faze me when I hear “fixin’ to”. People from other states think they need to translate it for me.
This is my first American Thanksgiving spend in America. I’ve had many Canadian Thanksgivings, one even in America. I’ve had many American Thanksgivings in Canada. The Van Dines, who are American, would celebrate it along with another American family from our church in Edmonton and I always seemed to get tossed into the mix, much to my delight. This time we are in Abilene and looking forward to the week.
Dwayne gets the rest of the week off, so it feels like Sat. morn. He needed to run out and get a special part for the bike, so he called a shop to see how late they were open. You gotta love this place, “We’re playing it by ear”. The day before Thanksgiving is more of a travel day, so I guess the shop owners aren’t committing to hangin around if the business isn’t there. So, on their way to the skate park to bike, the gentlemen will be stopping in to see if the shop is open and get what they need.
We’ve been invited for dinner, along with our Dallas weekend visitor, Kara, to an ACU family’s home. The same family invited Dwayne for dinner when he was bachin’ it before we moved down and he said the 3 and 5 year old kids are so cute. Now, if Dwayne is saying they are cute, you gotta know they are. He’s not like me where any child will turn me to mush (I get that from my mom). Dwayne’s co worker and family moved from Wisconsin last Dec., not even a year ago, so much of what they have been through, we are walking. The lady has already passed on a book that had been passed on to her called, After the Boxes Are Unpacked, by Susan Miller. The author moved 14 times at the writing of this book and has a ministry to other women who are experiencing the joys and changes of moving. It’s quite the encouragement to all the changes that we’ve experienced.
As a side note: not a crispy potato in the bunch. Now you know how long it takes to do these blogs; a big pot of cooked potatoes and longer. Yes, I saved the potato water for gravy, mom and Baba 
I must take a break now to get the famous Janies Holiday Potatoes ready for the fridge, so excuse me. Thanks again to Janie for saving me from digging in the storage bin for my special recipe box for special recipes. I just went to the source.
All done, but the clean up. It’s 12:30 and I’ve done all I can today in my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Now it’s clean the apartment time to introduce Kara to our new digs. We are so excited to see her again. Sept was a long time ago. Last night Caleb prayed, “and keep Kara safe as she drives down…or sideways to see us”. Nice to know he’s aware of the geography of Texas.
I thought I had a lot more to say, but I’ve run out. To all our American family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving. To all our Canadian family and friends, Happy November 26th and we love you all.
. I don’t have a favorite because they were all so good.
