Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...I know that I am 2 days late on getting this posted and I am very sorry for that. We have had a busy week around the Utter house! The kids had school Monday through Wednesday all day:-) Wednesday was the big Thanksgiving feast in Emily's classroom...it was really interesting with 18 1st graders, their teacher and lots of Mom's, Dad's and little brothers and sisters in their little classroom!! All that matters is the kids had a blast! On Thanksgiving day we went to Camp Bonifas, where Tim works, to have Thanksgiving dinner with his unit...it was beautifully decorated but Koreans just can't cook American food like we can:-) It was nice to be able to spend time with the other soldiers and the few other families!

Friday we had the pleasure of being visited by my friend Amber. She is from Syracuse originally and is here in Seoul as a Missionary for her church. She lives about an hour away and she came over to visit us yesterday and had the pleasure of getting to eat American food for the first time in a long while...she loves being here for her job but after a while Korean food gets old. We made some of my Oatmeal Cookies, which I let her take home a bag, and her Korean roommate has discovered that she likes very much! She was so excited to see our regular sized appliances because in Korea everything is tiny!! She was also excited to see American foods like Ranch Dressing...she was very excited when I told her she could have a whole bottle to take back home with her!! I made her some baked chicken in Italian dressing with Cheesy Hashbrown casserole and after her first bite she said her tongue was tingling with excitement!! She is so sweet and I look forward to her visiting us more often now that she knows the bus runs from her apartment to right outside our front gate! She is lucky though because she gets to go home on the 7th until the 21st! We were discussing yesterday some of the amazing things she will get to do while home such as eat a Hoffman hot dog, go to Doug's Fish Fry and be able to buy clothes:-)

Today, Saturday, I cooked a huge Thanksgiving dinner for 3 other families and ourselves!! We had a 27 lb turkey, a huge pot of mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, corn, crescent rolls, deviled eggs, creamsicle salad, apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie!! The men put away some serious food and we still had a ton of leftovers, so I called some other friends to come and get leftovers for their dinner, and I still have a bunch left! My family has taught me to cook for an Army so I did and they loved it:-) We loved it even more! I have realized this week that I am turning into my mom! AAAHHHHH:-)

So anyways in conclusion this Thanksgiving I have realized many things:

1- Family is so very important!

2- No matter how far apart you are from your family they are always just a phone call away!!

3- You can have a family outside of your biological family, my Army family!

4- God never gives you more than I can handle at any given time, I can handle quite a bit thanks to his help!

5- Enjoy every minute you get with your friends and family because you never know when they will be leaving you!

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and know that we think of you often!
Lots of love and prayers,
Steph