Tropical Island Thankgiving

I’ve been feeling a bit down about missing out on all the family holiday gatherings that are coming but our Okinawa family really came through for us this past Thanksgiving weekend. It was fantastic!!! Back in August we all got together and reserved cottages at small resort on a base up north. We’ve been there a few times but never along with anyone else. It was the perfect set up- 7 families, Hayden was the oldest of the 20 kids. All the cottages in a small fenced in area on one little road surrounding a playground and within walking distance to the beach. The kids were everywhere, riding bikes, rollerblading, digging in the sand, swinging and just enjoying the lack of supervision while the adults relaxed and hung out!
We started Thanksgiving off right with a football game that was a blast (thank you to the pregnant moms who watched the kids so the rest of us could play!) Then we gathered for appetizers for lunch, got some food prepped, put the Turkey in the oven and headed to the beach! The waves were great and the sand plentiful! Then we cleaned up and met for dinner. We had enough food to feed us all for three meals, three fantastically delicious meals! I don’t make anything that requires more than three ingredients but my friends are fantastic cooks and I totally benefitted! My mashed potatoes and rainbow jello turned out fine and I did contribute a stellar apple pie and pumpkin pie. Yum!
After dinner the kids had a scavenger hunt, a p.j. movie party and it was off to bed so the adults could stay up way to late playing games. Every night we would put the kids to bed, lock the doors and meet for pie and games at one of the cottages while monitoring the kids with baby monitors, walkie talkies, and cordless phones...it was awesome. (There is a perk to being on an isolated little military base- totally safe!) By the time we left on Saturday I was exhausted but so happy, I just kept smiling on the drive home thinking about how thankful I am to be here with so many wonderful people. Who would have thought that this far from “home” I could have so many amazing friends. We truly have become like family, the kids play like cousins and adults just enjoy our time together and everyone has unique and special things they bring to the group. This Thanksgiving, while so far from the rest of my family and things that are familiar there is no question I was the most thankful for friends...and the blue water and perfect weather helped...on the drive home I noticed that instead of passing trees full of fall leaves changing colors I was passing trees full of bright orange flowers. There were hundreds of them and they were gorgeous...ah yes, it might be far from “home” but for now it is home.

On a related note, Hayden did a little Thanksgiving play in his class at school and he was one of the two narrators and did a fantastic job! He's on the far left, reading one of his parts.