Gobble, Gobble Turkey Day

With Thanksgiving being strictly an American holiday we did our best to string out the Turkey Day festivities across the ocean. Our first project was to put together the model "turkey" I got at the book fair. It was really a peacock but close enough... I thought it would be easy as 1-2-3 to paint and then snap the pieces together.
Um, WRONG! It must have been some expert modeler's craft because we were defeated. We did manage to balance it together for a few photos. Only half painted, but just to get this far was a miracle.
It put us in a thankful mood to put out our turkey placemats...
And to create hand turkeys for grandparents...
We also had our Halloween pumpkin still whole. I thought it would be a fun afternoon activity to get the seeds out and roast them. I was sure Connor would LOVE sticking her fingers in the gooey mess.I was wrong. She pulled the top off, took one look inside, and wanted nothing more to do with the pumpkin. She scrunched up her face and declared over and over again that she did NOT want to try it!So she came up with some new games with the pumpkin accessories...And I finished deseeding the pumpkin.Connor thought the seeds were great fun to play with once they were clean and clear of the orange goo.It wasn't long til she stuck her feet in the bowl.And knowingly fed them to Elmo...Unfortunately my pumpkin seeds sat out too long before I baked them. They sprouted! Oh well. I threw them away before we had a pumpkin patch inside.

By the time Thanksgiving actually arrived we were primed and ready for the big day. Of course it was odd because it was a regular workday in Brussels. Kirk went to work and people bustled about in the city just like any old day. We did watch the Macy's parade on our Slingbox....at 4 PM our time due to the time zone difference. Connor loved the floats!

Our friends, Joe, John, and Tom had us over for a turkey feast. They are new expats and colleagues of Kirk. We were certainly thankful for their invitation. Dinner was delicious!Connor with Joe...We made pilgrim hats in celebration of Thanksgiving. They were a little small for adult heads, but whatever...The bird was beautiful. Chef Joe did a fabulous job. We went together to the British/English grocery earlier in the week to get it. Turkies aren't regular grocery items in Belgian stores. I brought green bean casserole, pumpkin bread and rice. We watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, which Connor loved.Sweet Joe made pumpkin pie that melted in our mouths.. And for Connor he made an extra special treat...It was all we could do to snap a photo before Connor devoured her personalized cookie!Thank you so much Tom and John and especially Joe for a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a ball. We will always remember our Belgian Thanksgivings!!!

Click here for full album photos of our Thanksgiving Projects (and a few other outings too!)