Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone! I know I’m a little late, but we’ve been pretty occupied over here. On Wednesday we were blessed to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our closest friends in Grenoble (there were 11 of us total: 4 Americans, 6 French, and Matt, who is more Americanized). It was a fun experience to be able to share one of our country’s biggest holidays (and my personal favorite) with our French friends. We ate a delicious lunch! I’ve been missing all of those typical American dishes: green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, and TURKEY! Plus pumpkin pie, which is VERY American.

Besides eating, which we did a lot of, we also talked about the meaning of Thanksgiving courtesy of Charlie Brown, read some thanksgiving scriptures, shared some things we all were thankful for, and PLAYED GAMES! We couldn’t watch the parade or football games because it was Wednesday and 6 hours ahead of EST time, but we did play “paper triangle” football (what is that even called?), which Matt won, a Thanksgiving matching game, and Pictionary which is hilarious when played in 2 different languages. All in all we had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

The hardest part of this past week was not being able to be home. Yesterday my mom threw a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather and EVERYONE (except me and one of my cousins) was there. The last time we were all together was for my wedding, but I was so busy before-hand I didn’t get to spend any time with my relatives. I wish I could have teleported to Maryland so badly! But my mom Facetimed me a few times so it was almost like I was there (technology is great, eh?)!

And here’s a crazy French story for you all. Yesterday I went to get a haircut. It was my first time getting a haircut here. The last time my hair was cut was when I was home in May, so I really needed to go get it cut again. I was expecting it to be really nerve-racking because of the language barriers. I know and can comprehend a lot more French now, but I don’t know any hair cutting vocabulary! But Matt came with me and he didn’t even need to translate much. I showed the hair dresser a picture and told her what I wanted and that was that. She did a FANTASTIC job. Here’s a picture:

My new French haircut :)

But the real thing I wanted to share was what happened after the haircut. We went to pay and realized that Matt didn’t have his wallet, or anything for that matter (no permit, no ID, nothing). If only he had realized that at the start of the haircut he could have driven home and back (it’s about a 20-25 minute round trip drive)… We both felt HORRIBLE. But thankfully Matt’s mom has been going to that place for 15 years, and the hair dresser who cut my hair is the one who always cuts Matt’s mom hair. So they said they would put it on her tab and not to worry. It was no problem at all! Too bad they don’t understand the concept of tips here in France, because if that had happened in the U.S. I would have given her a really good one!

So overall I am thankful for grace! And my family and friends, too, of course! Happy Thanksgiving season everyone and Merry Christmas too!