Action de Grâces

This is how the French Canadians refer to our beloved holiday of harvest. They also call a hot dog a “chien chaud” and turn practically any word into its French literal meaning. However, the French don’t need to try so hard since they are so darn French already. So they call a hot dog a hot dog and they call this holiday we celebrate Thanksgiving. Or actually, “Tanks-geeving.” 

This Thanksgiving was weird. It’s the first major holiday I’ve spent away from my family. It doesn’t feel weird to not be with them, it’s just weird that they’re all together without me. Maybe that’s the same thing. I wish I could be a fly on the wall of my grandma’s dining room to see what they act like when I’m not around. But at any rate, I have been very blessed to be surrounded by loving, sweet people to help me be really thankful this Thanksgiving.

The burnt pie.

It never struck me how very American this holiday is, and I think it’s quite possibly the only holiday America really has dibs on. Okay, 4^th of July also, but I think every country has a patriotic day. I became a Thanksgiving expert, the go-to girl for questions. I found myself telling about why it’s a holiday, what a pumpkin pie is supposed to be like, and my own family traditions—which by the way, we don’t really have any. Except maybe keeping Grandma from putting jelly in a crystal dish. So it was a privilege to help organize a dinner with a bunch of other Americans for people from different countries. It was pretty successful. We had some of the typical dishes: delicious cranberries, amazing stuffing, swell sweet potatoes, and artful mashed potatoes, but also tons of other yummies from other cultures. No turkey though, since they are nowhere to be found in this country. I wanted to make a traditional apple pie, I prepared a beautiful pie, well worth the pride I had in it. But France caught wind of my attempt to be American and sent all the fires of Hades to the only oven to which I had access and burned it to a crisp in under 8 minutes. I have witnesses to this fact. Fortunately, we were able to scrape off the black carbon from the top and the rest of the pie was intact. It was scrumptious, and was gone before the night’s end. 

For the actual night of Thanksgiving, I was blessed to have dinner with a family from church. As I said, turkey isn’t found in France (I have a hunch they were all kicked out because they weren’t classy enough) so we had some delicious chicken. I had a “cultural experience” explaining what I meant by “dark meat” along with several other valuable lessons. For instance, in France if you want to talk “gangster,” you invert words. For instance, to say “bizarre” you would say “zarre-bi.” So hood, n’est-ce pas? Also, what we call French toast is called “pain perdu,” or “lost bread” since it is traditionally cooked with stale bread. I think my favorite part of the meal besides the company was the stuffed mini pumpkins the wife made. I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with a family who was so patient with my French and so gracious to invite me into their home.

I have a good friend who makes a list of things she’s thankful for each Thanksgiving. I am following her wonderful example and making a list of my own. So I present to you, in no particular order, what I am most thankful for this year.

•       My wonderful, hilarious loud family
•            My dearest friends who practically are my family.
• ·         The Gospel in my life.
• ·         People who use their talents to build others up.
• ·         Mountains in the Northwest
• ·         Parc Jourdan
• ·         Grace
• ·         Hymns
• ·         Snail mail (thank you all!)
• ·         The patience of those who tolerate my imperfections
• ·         God’s patience
• ·         That God has a sense of humor
• ·         Cardigans
• ·         Woobies (those comfort items we all seem to have)
• ·         That we get to live in such a beautiful world
• ·         To be from America.
• ·         To be from Washington.
• ·         Peanut butter
• ·         Arend Hall, even if I'm not living there anymore.
• ·         Hugs
•       Photographs
• ·         Prayer
• ·         The opportunity to be in France
• ·         The scriptures
• ·         The Lord’s missionaries
• ·         Laughter and those who make me laugh
• ·         That I have blonde hair, brown eyes
• ·         Genuinely sweet people
• ·         The Holy Spirit
• ·         The Atonement and how it allows me to become better than I am
• ·         Hope
• ·         Libraries
• ·         That spring always follows winter
• ·         Humbling experiences
• ·         Rain
• ·         For learning piano, even though I always wish I had stuck with dance.
• ·         Chocolate
• ·         Sunshine
• ·         Healthy legs to run with
• ·         For a living Prophet
• ·         the smell of Verbena
• ·         the empty journals I inherited from my grandfather
• ·         Skype
• ·         Peppermint Tea
• ·         Trains, metros, and airplanes.
• ·         C.S. Lewis and all his wisdom
• ·       to have breath in my lungs
• ·         inspired leaders
• ·         my grandma’s spunk
• ·         my mother’s compassion
• ·         comfy loveseats
• ·         American customer service
• ·         La Poste
• ·         All the rugged, REI-loving, zombie-obsessed, faith-centered, immature maturity that is the  Whitworth campus
• ·         The Temple
• ·         That God has a plan for me.

Render all the thanks and praise which you whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice.

Mosiah 2:20

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!