there's no turkey here . . .

. . .but we're still enjoying a little thanksgiving of our own. apparently you can still sit down with loved ones and count your blessings even if you don't have an oven to make stuffing, or bake pie, or make that marshmallowy yam stuff. because if you have a stove top, or even a hot plate you can still make yummy star anise earl grey homemade cranberry sauce, sautee some chicken and apples, boil up some cheese ravioli and throw in some nutmeg to pretend that it's really the homemade pumpkin stuff, and just spread lots of "grasboter superieur" over everything.

so all this to say i had this realization that it was my first thanksgiving away from my family and had just recovered from a nasty bout of homesickness. but just as i was thinking that, i looked up and there was michael and owen playing football in the seven square feet that is our "living room" and that i wasn't away from my family at all. they were right here with me. bearing the rain and bad dutch haircuts and evil frau. and those damn gaps in the bed. but they were here, we were here, walking down langstraat together with six bags from the plus market hanging off the well-worn maclaren stroller, bundled up in "mittens! mittens!", up the red carpeted staircase and into our room, together.

and we're on our sixth room change but somehow, this morning it seems, it happened. we settled in here in amersfoort, netherlands. michael and i have the tuck-the-six-suitcases-out-of-sight game down pat and as long as owen has his choo-choo-people-train and elmo bed and he's happy to be here (a mini bar fridge is some kind of prereq too). the wireless is up, the flowers are on the table, and since we're all together it's home. but we do miss the sierra dog and even crazy izzy kitty too. and owen says night-night to grandma and grandpa, nana and papa, all his aunties and uncles, and our favorite people before he settles in with mickey mouse (no longer "mee moo" but "micka mou") and elmo. so do we ;)