A Very Réunion Thanksgiving!

The cool thing about teaching kids about the United States is that I end up doing research on things I've never had to think about before. For example, I never knew that Lincoln was the one who first declared Thanksgiving a National holiday, set on the last Thursday of November. Or that Roosevelt changed it in 1941 to the 4th (and not always last) Thursday in November to give the economy a slight boost. Or that Thanksgiving is a blend of already existent Native American and European end of harvest festivals.

My kids knew a little bit about Halloween, but this was the first time they were hearing about Thanksgiving. To help give them an idea, I brought in my laptop with pictures of my previous Thanksgivings, got a Thanksgiving song off of youtube, and made my own flashcards depicting important things like family dinner, turkey, and parades! Then they made cards for their parents :-)

Why did I not become an artist? I mean really. 

Thanksgiving Stickers, sent to me by my lovely friend Kara! The kids loooved them.

My roommate and I decided randomly at the beginning of the week that we would host a small dinner for all the assistants in our city. We had everyone bring in a dish, and we were in charge of the turkey. Which....I might add, is not something you find too often here. Luckily...my friend Yazid's sister is a butcher! So on Tuesday, she, um...prepared our turkey for us, which was available for pick up Wednesday. It all came together wonderfully.

We are still in France, after all! 

Don't forget the wishbone! 

I won! Don't worry, I made a very beautiful wish :-)

And of course, we played the game where everyone goes around the table and says what they are thankful for. I played this game with my students as well, and they said adorable things like "chocolate!" "my sister!" " my clothes!" "jewelry!" "puppies!"

It made me think this week about what I am thankful for. Honestly, I don't even know where to start. I live on a tropical island. I'm getting paid to play games with kids and sing songs and learn French. I came home from work Thursday to find three boxes of candy, stickers, books and love letters from my amazing friends back in Texas. My friends on the island have done nothing but miracle after miracle for me...and I've only known them for two months!! My family never once has made me feel guilty or discouraged me from traveling the world to follow my dreams, even when I have to miss weddings, birthdays, holidays, funerals. I have a crazy Aunt and a Jimmy who have never given up on me. And a very supportive, loving boyfriend who has never once complained that I left him (on his birthday none the less) to go on this adventure all alone. And of course I have a little puppy waiting for me to come back and get him one day. 

Things aren't always easy...and there are some days when I just wanna give up and go home. But you know...no matter how scary the future is...how unsure...I have a really strong support system and a really amazing life. 

And that is definitely something to give thanks for.