Is it Thanksgiving?

It's hot. Hot hot hot...hottie hot hot. This year Thanksgiving is just weird. Not necessarily weird bad, but weird. You see, it's hot (did I mention that already?) and it's so hard to associate any of my favorite winter holidays with this heat. Not to mention palm trees, coconuts, and beaches. Plus, where's my husband? I know he's around here somewhere. Isn't the holidays all about family? Where is mine? Oh right, Josh has a mock test on Thanksgiving. Nothing says Thanksgiving like a mock anatomy test. Whoo hoo! And Ethan had school because obviously American Thanksgiving is not a recognized Grenadian holiday.

So I took the girls and went to the pool. Why? Because it's freakin' hot and I can, dang it! And here it is! This is where we were for Thanksgiving. Just us too, because everyone else was somewhere else.

This is the University Club. It's a private club for faculty and staff of the university, but they let the significant others use it on Mondays and Thursdays. I believe the 4th and 5th termers get to use it too.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Through the trees you can see the university where Josh spent his Thanksgiving studying at Taylor Hall. 

We decided that we are going to do a nice real Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, but I still wanted to try to have some kind of Thanksgiving-like meal on Thursday. When I went to IGA, I thought I'd try to get some turkey lunch meat, but they were all out. In fact, the only turkey they had was a whole turkey that runs for $40 - $50 US dollars. Ouch! So I picked up some ground beef instead and made a meatloaf. We had meatloaf, cranberry sauce from a can, and long beans, which are really long green beans. Ethan said it was the best Thanksgiving ever and he wanted to do it again next year. Since we'll be here, I'm sure that can be arranged. For dessert we had the most amazing pumpkin pie! I made it from scratch with Grenadian pumpkin and a beautiful flaky homemade crust.

So then like any good red-blooded American, I had to participate in Black Friday shopping. I headed down to St. George's to pick up a few things.

Downtown St. George's 

Friday is market day, lots of vendors on the street

Looking up the street toward the fabric store where I was headed. 

Here's the sign for the fabric store. There are housewares in the back along with carpet and some other random stuff. 

This is the spice market. DO NOT go in there unless you are willing to say no. They jump on tourists pretty bad. You have to have a strong constitution to go there. I can't go very often. It wears me out. 

Tonight, Sunday, we had our real Thanksgiving. On the menu: homemade cranberry sauce, Josh's Gramma Nell's potato casserole, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, and brined turkey legs.

Yummmmmmmmy!!

Ok, I know they don't look good from this picture, but I did brine them and the turkey legs turned out pretty good. 

This is how they are packaged...weird, huh? $5 EC is about $2 US. 

Who does this? Who wants to eat their turkey legs crosswise? 

All in all, a good holiday. Unusual to be sure, but I am thankful that at least we are all together.

We did some decorating for Thanksgiving. I traced everyone's hands and we made some turkeys. Ethan helped me cut them out and he pasted his own turkey. They turned out cute I thought.

Noelle's little turkey is everyone's favorite. 

Ethan's turkey

Analeigh's turkey

the whole turkey family

In Other News...

Analeigh goes to the GAP or Grand Anse Playgroup every Friday morning. There she gets to play with other kids her age and have a little school time. She loves it! This Friday the GAP did a little show for the parents. Analeigh had a ball even though I don't think she had a clue as to what was going on.

She didn't get much sleep at nap time since this was at 4 in the afternoon. 

Sweet girl had no idea what was going on, but boy did she have fun.  I know it doesn't look like it here, but it's all she was talking about that night. 

Noelle's hair is getting so long. It's adorable, but it gets in her eyes. She won't let me put bows or clips in it anymore, so my only hope is some pigtails. You have to be quick on the draw to get them in there though. The latest attempt had her looking a little like Cindy Lou Who:

It really is about the cutest thing you'll ever see!

Let me tell you, this kid is going to be another super smarty pants. She is already pointing to exactly what she wants, saying and signing "all done" at the dinner table, and waving and saying "good-bye" when Daddy leaves to go study. If Josh even picks up his backpack she starts waving. She seems to really understand what is going on around her and is picking up things very quickly. She hasn't started saying "Mama" yet, but I'm okay with that one. I know once they learn that they can get your attention like that, it never ends. I'll wait patiently for that day to come. Until then, let's teach her to say "Dada". 

Ethan is doing well in school. He's been moved up to the 2nd grade reading group. The other day he brought home Gulliver's Travels to read just for fun. He loves to read, draw, make charts, cut, paste, and overall be creative. Poor baby, I don't have any new pictures of him. I know, I'm horrible.

Eggs-tra Traumatic Event....

Sometimes I miss Texas so much...not even just Texas, America in general. You always hear about how great farm-fresh eggs are. Oh there's nothing like a fresh egg, people boast. I beg to differ. Our eggs here are fresh from the chicken. There's even feathers and chicken poop to prove it. Josh gets them from school on a crate of 30 and they are the brown ones you see at Walmart, and if I remember correctly, pay more for. 

Well, let me tell you, I'm not a fan. I miss my good ol' American bleached egg. These farm eggs pose new problems I've never encountered, including the possibility for rotten eggs. Other SO's had been telling me that they've cracked rotten eggs into recipes and to watch out. Note to self: always crack eggs into other vessel and poor into recipe. Good thing I listened, because at the end of one of the flats of eggs I found  not one, but 4 rotten eggs. You have to be careful when you crack these fussy eggs to begin with because so far I've shattered 3 of them on the counter. Egg everywhere. Apparently their shell can be very thin. 

So I was making some breakfast muffins, tasty little muffins with bread, egg, bacon, and cheese. I go through and start cracking; then I think, these eggs have been here for a little while, I better test them. I read online that you can tell if an egg is good or bad by putting it in a bowl of water. If it sinks, it's good. If it floats, it's bad. If it hovers in between, it's a crap shoot. Good luck. I tested all of the remaining eggs, tossed the 3 or 4 floaters, used the good ones, and then got ready to test my luck. It was NOT my lucky day. A few were usable and smelled fine. Then I cracked, but did not tear the membrane of a bad one. Excuse me while I try not to hurl while thinking about this.....but the inside was Green!! Oh that haunts my dreams, but that's not the worst of it. Since I didn't break the membrane on that one, it didn't smell, but the next one did. If you have never run across a rotten egg, it indeed does smell like sulfur, but it also will never leave your nostrils  Ugh...I am forever haunted by that smell. To make it even better and more of a Grenadian experience, it was NOT the night before trash day. So those eggs had to sit under my sink for at least 2 nights. And we cannot put trash outside due to the insane stray dog population...not to mention countless other creatures of the day and night. 

So if you see me in Walmart one day lovingly hugging and petting a carton of glorious white bleached eggs, please just move along. We'll need a moment. 

Hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, food, and fun!! 

Tarryn