Thanksgiving

Well, we had a lovely Thanks- giving feast with one other American, 2 Candians, 2 Germans, 1 Scottish and 2 Irish folks-aren't we the diverse group? We ate WAY too much food, and the hashbrown casserole was a hit. I have put the recipe at the end of this post, for those of you who can't handle Christmas without it :0) There was this yummy cranberry salad, with fresh cranberries, apples, orange juice, etc. Only the turkey and casserole were standards for us, but it was still delicious. Oh, and this picture doesn't show the desserts, there were quite a few of those as well. We took a very slow walk after 3rd helpings to make room for dessert.

Blayne was voted to take the carver duties, and here he is doing the honors. The Irish & Germans were very interested in this holiday where we stuff our faces and talk about what we're thankful for. For all of us (the Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving too, but in October, so this was a very belated celebration for them) we agreed that we were thankful to have new friends to celebrate with.

Here is Blayne doing what he does every year. Joanna mentioned that Paul missed this, so I just had to put this picture in. His plate was full of meat and potatoes. We are in the right country for that, at least.

So these are some of our new friends. A couple of these folks are friends of theirs who I don't know as well. In the first shot behind the counter that's Steve (German) & Norah (Canadian) and on the couch with Blayne is Ailie (Scottish). The other shot is Fabian (German) the two Irish friends of Becky's, Becky (USA) and Charlene (Candada). We had several of these folks over last night and introduced them to Dutch Blitz (which they loved) and I made chocolate chip cookies...mmmmmmm. Then we watched anchorman. Ailie said she now has new insight into Blayne. If she only knew. Well, that's the news from this part of the world. So much excitement back in Greeley right now and with the holidays coming up we're missing home a bit. But we are glad to be here and feel very blessed to be where we are right now. Love you all lots!

Hashbrown Casserole
1 large bag of frozen hashbrowns; 1/2 melted butter; 1 Tbsp. salt; 1/2 tsp. of pepper; 1 can cream of chicken soup; 1/2 cup diced onion (I use a food processor because Blayne doesn't like the texture of onions); 1 pt. sour cream; 12 oz. grated extra sharp cheddar cheese-mix all these together in a grease casserole dish (at least 9x13-bigger if you have it)
Top with the following: 1 sleeve ritz crackers crushed mixed with 1/4 c melted butter.
Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 300. Enjoy!