Happy Thanksgiving, sweet friends.

"Lord God, we render praise to you as our Creator and Sustainer,
as the spring of life and source of healing.
We praise you with lips that sing,
arms that embrace,
and feet that dance.
Our praise of you is spoken before the nations
and whispered in intimate love.
Our praise happens in rocking a baby, tending a patient,
affirming a student, hearing a client,
writing a letter, phoning a friend,
reaching out, holding,
listening, waiting,
offering all You have given to us to one another.
We praise you,
Lord God,
when we remember from whence we have come and to Whom we all soon will return."

I saw that on a blog today. I couldn't find the author- but I really love it.

I had a great Thanksgiving. A lovely normal day at work (funny, Bolivian offices don't seem to close for our American holidays...), but taking girls out for ice cream and a walk in the park, chilling on the couches knitting, completing one more interview for my independent study, and a hilarious staff meeting was just right and felt like a wonderful way to spend the holiday.

And they know enough about the holiday to just shake their heads and thank me when I informed them at work that "Estoy agradecida por TI... y TI... y por TI!" (I am thankful for you, and you, and you!). When I bid them all a "Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias (isn't that a cool translation?? The Day of Action of Giving Thanks)!!!!!!!!!!!" on my way out the door they rolled their eyes but returned the greeting :-).

And then I met up with the lovely Drew and Ann and John and Jenny for an impressively traditional American-style Thanksgiving feast. So perfect.

Hope all of your Thanksgivings were so wonderful, my amazing friends and family. I am so unbelievably blessed and grateful to get to have all of you in my life.

Emily' s College Thanksgivings...

Freshman year:

Here Mary and I are with our cute grandmothers at my house for our awesome Goldberg-Gottschalk Thanksgiving Celebration!

(I love friendships that involve each other's families, I love Mayr's family in particular, and I LOVED that we all gathered and gave thanks together that year.)


And my beautiful sister.

Sophomore year:

My mom, sister, and I met up in California to celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom's fam! My cousin Jenny threw a beautiful dinner and it was so great to connect with family we don't get to see enough. Here are my Goldberg Girls with Jen and her then-new baby Connor...

Cute family, beautiful table...

...and walking on the beach in November... gotta love CA.

Junior year:

The incredibly hospitable Kirschners hosted me and I got to spend awesome quality time with Christine, her boyfriend Luke, and got to meet all of her friends from high school and her family. So special to get to know all of them and it was a definite bonding experience for our friendship.

(Don't worry my love... you're going to be back with him so soon!!!)


So very much to give thanks for.