Fun Filled Weekend!

Saturday was our official "real" celebration of Thanksgiving at our friends Kate and Brannan's
flat. I had prepared by making one turkey Friday night and another Saturday morning. (I had originally bought one and realized it might not be enough to feed 8 adults, but turns out it would have been just the perfect amount....but then we wouldn't have had leftovers for the past few days!) I also made homemade cranberry sauce (I was very excited I finally found fresh cranberries) and a few things for me to eat with the big meal. So we arrived at Kate and Brannan's a little after 11am with a whole bunch of food and whatnot to help celebrate the day.

We met Kate and Brannan's friends, Ian and Corrie, who they have known from when they all lived in Indiana together several years ago. Ian is studying at St. Andrew's so they took the train up on Thursday night to spend the long weekend in Aberdeen. Our other friends, James and Allison (you might remember them from the Jenga picture awhile back) also came along for the celebration.

There was a huge spread both for appetizers and the usual Thanksgiving Day feast. The men chatted it up about theology and such (what else?!) and Ian also helped keep Lily (Brannan and Kate's adorable daughter!) busy while the ladies tried to not run over each other in the tiny galley kitchen.

We somehow finally managed to get all the food cooked in the tiny oven too!

Mark got the special job on carving the turkey. Guess that was because I brought the turkey, he offered and maybe had the most experience. It would have been easier with an electric knife, but what fun would that have been?

After stuffing ourselves as is Thanksgiving Day tradition, we went on a brief walk and then enjoyed a combination of episodes of The Office and various You Tube videos. We didn't have The Macy's Day Parade, football games, or Home Alone to watch so these were our substitutes! We even laughed so hard our faces and stomachs hurt. It was fun to be around Americans and be reminded of American things throughout the day!

Sunday after church we did more eating :) A 4th year university student who attends our church and Mark met when he went Hill Walking (back in Oct's posts), Duncan, had invited us and others over for lunch on Sunday. He made an impressive meal! We couldn't believe all he put into the meal, especially trying to find things I could eat as well. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more people in our church. There was one other single guy 1st year student, 3 female students of various years and one widowed lady who loves hanging out with younger people. We learned more about Scottish culture and they probably learned from us about American culture too. Pretty soon we will have to put together a dinner party to repay some of these kind folks who have had us to dinner.