Thankful for Thanksgiving :)

I got to celebrate Thanksgiving all the way over here in Germany! On Thursday, I ate with my Rotary club, and the exchange students living in my city! So that means another American, an Argentinian, and a Swedish(an?) haha! It was nice, but definitely NOT thanksgiving. THANKfully, on Friday, I got to go visit my Texan friend, where we would be preparing a TRUE thanksgiving meal... By ourselves... :o It was awesome though. I arrived at around 2, and we didn't leave the kitchen until I think about 7! We prepared a turkey, homemade sweet potatoes, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, green beans, stuffing, chocolate pie AND cake. EVERYTHING was homemade. No boxed stuffing, canned sauce, powdered gravy. Not even a frozen turkey! We had to have it ordered to be killed from the farm! I felt like Grandma in the kitchen ;) The stuffing and sweet potatoes were an especially fun thing to make ;) First off; stuffing. Neither Katie or I had ever made stuffing before, and of course we had a recipe.. that was in American measurements. Here is the recipe that WE followed.

ONE WHOLE LOAF of white bread 

4 handfuls of onions and strange white celery

2 sticks of butter

Some chicken broth

Cut the loaf into cubes. You are supposed to leave it out overnight to dry (so it will be like croutons) Of course forget to do that, so put the chopped cubes into a frying pan. "Toast the bread". Remove bread, and add vegetables and all the butter. Cook until tender but not brown. Eat half of the "toasted bread" while waiting. But all the stuff together, pour some chicken broth over it, and stick it in the oven. HOPE AND PRAY FOR THE BEST.

Actually all the Germans loved it. Katie and I knew that of course it did NOT taste like actual stuffing, but it wasn't half bad ;)    

                                                                                                                                    YUM!

Holding our baby! 7 kilos of deliciousness!

Now the sweet potatoes . haha! I peeled and cut sweet potatoes for a good 40 minutes before discovering that ALL of them were rotten. YAY. I mean, I have never actually seen fresh ones before, and the little black spots were everywhere! On every potato  So Katie and I just thought "Oh yeah, weird German vegetables..." haha no! Luckily the very last one I was peeling was ALL black, and thats when I decided something wasn't exactly right with this picture ;) THANKfully, Katie's host dad was able to run to the store and buy some fresh ones :D Of course we couldn't find normal marshmallows  so we ended up with the gourmet colored and flavored ones :p I must say it tasted really delicious! ;)

               Look at all that love ;)                                                             a NOT ROTTEN sweet potato!

All in all I would call it a major success  and an awesome weekend :) I spent the rest of it in Magdeburg, saw a movie, (NEVER ever watch Cloud Atlas in german...) I also got to go to church! Katie has an uncle who knows missionaries in Germany, and just out of pure luck there is one in Magdeburg! They do not do service in English, but they invited us to there house for lunch, and their whole family speaks perfect American english! That was really cool, and I love the family :) 

THIS WEEK;

My city's Christmas market ("Weinacht Markt" Weinacht=Christmas) opens TOMORROW!! :D Ah so excited! On another side, I'm bracing myself for the homesickness! :( Also, snow is expected this weekend right where I live... Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas y'all! :)