Happy Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving. Obviously Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Mexico. Yesterday I was at one of my friends (Norma) house. I was explaining to her that it was Thanksgiving. One of our other friends (Margarita) was also there visiting with us. Norma asked what Thanksgiving was, without giving me any time to answer Margarita chose to answer. She explained to Norma that Thanksgiving was the American version of Mexican Christmas! I couldn't believe my ears. I sat and listened to the two of them talk about what they thought Thanksgiving was. Norma asked me (in Spanish) "so is this the day when the bunny brings the eggs? and where exactly does he hide them?". Needless to say I quickly explained that Thanksgiving had nothing to do with Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. I told them the history of Thanksgiving and explained that it is a time to be with family and really think about the things that you are thankful for. Well, I had to stop talking about it because I got teary eyed. I realized just how thankful I am to have such a wonderful life. I have a wonderful family, wonderful in-laws, healthy family, food on the table, clothes to wear, a house to sleep in, two cars, friends who love me, running water, electricity, and on and on.

It is sad that we couldn't be with family during Thanksgiving but I was blessed with time with my family and friends. Yesterday (thanksgiving) we had ham, sweet potato casserole, pot. casserole, and cranberry salad. It was the first time that the five of us celebrated Thanksgiving as a family. While eating we read a great book called "The First Thanksgiving".

Today we got together with our team and had a feast!!! We could have put the pilgrams to shame! Everyone brough all their favorite foods. After dinner we played cards and just visited. It was a lot of fun.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving - love Toni

We just got back last night from a Mexico Missionaries retreat. I think there were around 80 of us (30 or so children). It was a great time to study the word together, catch up on friendships, play at the beach, share stories about the work in Mexico etc. It was really good for our family.

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The beach was beautiful. I love the beach, it reminds me of my childhood and the beach in Italy.

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Josiah is a dare devil and had a ton of fun in the ocean and pool. He can doggy paddle all the way across the pool! Hannah loved the water. She is just as brave as her brother and has no fear of jumping in the pool. Abigail had a great time also there were a few girls her age and she really enjoyed them. She is still talking about them. She wanted to know if Cory and I can buy her a Barbie computer so that she can e-mail Adah Henderson. We will have to think about that one!

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We were so blessed to get to be next door to some of our very best friends in the world, Benjy and Carolyn Brednich. Carolyn and I were in Slovakia together for a year and we were in each others wedding. Benjy was Cory's best man in our wedding. They have three adorable boys. As always we were so blessed to get to stay up late catching up (even though Care and I always ended up asleep in the hamocks).

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One of the highlights of the trips (at least for me) was the turtles. Turtles return to the beach where they are born and lay their eggs. Well, for the safety of the eggs people watch for turtles that come to shore and lay their eggs. They then dig up the eggs and put them in a "green house" it is a house made out of screen. When they hatch the hotels put the turtles in a safe environment and a few days later release them. Six years after the turtles are born they will return to the same beach they were born at to lay eggs. The sad thing is that only 1% of the turtles live that long. Most get eaten by birds, dogs, etc. Since they have started this program they have been able to increase the percentage that return. If the turtles get a chance to mature they can live up to 150 years! The kids loved getting to see the turtles and then release them into the ocean.

A cruise ship came the day before we left.

To all off you that were at the retreat thanks for everything we had a great time and really enjoyed being around your families.