Thanksgiving in Scotland

I'm way late on this.  As usual.  Thanksgiving was interesting for us this year.  It was a first for us to celebrate it in a foreign country.  It's strange also to have the kids go to school.  I do admit that it made it easier to prep for dinner without my kids running around.

Jonathan's brother Nathan came to visit.  He and his friend Emily spent some time in London then came to visit Scotland for a couple of days.  They arrived the night before Thanksgiving and were planning on leaving early in the morning for Edinburgh.

Nathan was concerned that so many people showering in the morning would be a problem.  We assured him that we had plenty of hot water.  Our thermostat seemed to be broken so our water was super hot and went a long way.  We woke up the following morning to find that our water heater had broken.  Uh-oh!  We all had to take bucket showers (not fun when you have long hair).  Luckily we have an electric kettle that boils water very quickly.  What a mess!  I had to keep boiling water throughout the day so that I could hand wash all of my china.  It took forever!

It all worked out and we were able to enjoy our dinner.  We invited the missionaries from our ward and two of Jonathan's co-workers, who also transferred from the San Diego office.  The missionaries kept the kids occupied while we finished preparations for dinner.

We had a full table and it was really fun.  It was like the "Young Single Thanksgiving Dinner" as every one was single besides Jonathan and I.  There was a lot of food and a lot of laughter! When is there not laughter when Nathan is around?

The kids had their own little table in the kitchen.  Jonathan's grandmother, Grandma Rothe, has a tradition of providing everyone with chocolate turkeys from See's Candies.  She sent them to Nathan, and he kindly used some of his limited luggage space to bring them for us. Thanks Nathan! They had all eaten so much we wanted them to wait until the next day to eat the turkeys, but Alyssa couldn't wait.  She ripped off that foil and promptly chomped off its head.  It looks like Nathan wanted a taste as well.  

Hopefully Nathan will visit again.  Next time, we'll have hot water.  Promise.