Thanksgiving

So, I've been to the future, and it's fantastic. Thanksgiving is November 27th, but we had our Thanksgiving on Saturday. We got up at 5:45 on Saturday to make the trek out to Imabari for Stef's prenatal appointment (and church on Sunday).

John spent all day preparing food for a branch Thanksgiving dinner. The Scotts made all the good stuff you're used to: turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, stuffing, and more. Other people brought mashed potatoes, cheesy scalloped potatoes, drinks, Pringles, rice, and sushi. Stef made brownies and an eggplant-noodle dish.

A whole bunch of people showed up to the chapel. There was plenty of food to go around. Before we started eating, John took a moment to explain the tradition of Thanksgiving in America. After telling the revisionist story that we all learned in school, he said that the food we were eating was the same food the pilgrims ate for their harvest festival of Thanksgiving. I wondered aloud how grateful the pilgrims must have been for Pringles.

The food was great. It was neat to eat all the traditional Thanksgiving foods with chopsticks.

We used to do grocery shopping on the weekends, but now we go through a catalogue and order food online. Stef writes down the code numbers and quantities for all the items that we want, and I input them on a website by Tuesday night at 7. The next Monday, our food is placed on the Uoshima ferry and arrives at 4:40. Items that need refrigeration come in a styrofoam box with dry ice. Everything else comes in cardboard boxes. It's very convenient, even if the prices aren't always the best. It's worth not having to travel, and I'd actually guess that we spend less this way.

I had Monday off, so we stayed with the Scotts on Sunday night so that we could get some shopping done in Imabari. The boat ride was pretty wild; the wind was so strong that they weren't even sure if they'd let the boat leave. We needed to get to Yuge in time to reach the boat that arrives at 4:40 in Uoshima. Otherwise, we might not have made it back on Monday and our food could have spoiled. Even though the waves were high and the ride was bumpy, we got home safely and got to put our groceries away. One of these days I'll give a more detailed account of our trek to church. It's quite grueling.

On a different subject, when we were decorating for Halloween, on the window Stef stuck little rubbery goo stickers in the shape of ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, witches and cats. She also spelled out HAPPY HALLOWEEN for passersby to read. Kelsey found them. One by one, she would climb up on the couch and grab one while we weren't looking. At first, we got mad that she was ruining the decorations. HAPPY HALLOWEEN slowly turned to HAP HALLOW, or some other such nonsense. But then, we realized that they weren't that important, and we had only spend a couple bucks on them anyway. It wasn't a big deal. By the time that Kelsey had whittled our decorations to HA LOL, we had already learned to laugh at the situation. Kelsey really is a cute little girl. We'll be happy if her little sister is half as cute.

That's right. We're having a girl! :D