"Be Joyful Always.... Give Thanks in All Circumstances.."

This verse in 1 Thessalonians is my mantra for today.  I think I've already repeated it to myself a dozen times this morning so far, and I've barely got the kids out the door for school today.  But honestly, I'm having to repeat it over and over to myself because I'm having a really hard time following it today.

Today is Thanksgiving.  Or at least, it's supposed to be.  But here, it's just a normal school/work day.  I've gotten fairly used to that over the years.  But this is the first year (I think in our 10 years in PNG) that we are doing absolutely nothing to celebrate it.  And I'm having a hard time with that.

It's not that I'm not thankful.  I have SO much to be thankful for.  But finding joy today when I just want to cry is more the issue.  Maybe I can just chalk it up to hormones, but really, it's more than that.

Last year, we had probably the most "Thanksgiving-like" day that we've ever had here.  You can see it HERE.  We did all the traditional Thanksgiving things... hang out for the entire day, eat way too much food, play games, chat, re-visit the leftovers in the evening.  It was wonderful.

But this year, after hosting Thanksgiving get-togethers for the last couple of years, I just am tired.  We've had tons going on and I just honestly am not up to hosting a big get-together.  I guess a part of me is discouraged by feeling that unless we host and invite and plan, no one will invite us to something.  And so, we aren't having Thanksgiving this year.

I'm planning to have a special dinner tonight, just for our family, between helping the kids with their homework and Matt rushing off to play Floorball after dinner.  Not quite the same.  And it won't be a fancy turkey dinner complete with all the fixings.  (This year, it would actually be possible to procure a turkey -- it's not always possible--- but it would literally cost over $80 to buy one!!!  So even though it's is possible, it ain't gonna happen!)  But it's hard to go through our non-holiday, knowing that back home, loved ones are getting together and laughing and talking and eating turkey and we are just having a 'just-like-any-other-day' here.  It's easier to handle when we have plans to get together with friends and celebrate with them. 

But, since that's not happening this year, I'll just try to keep busy, and go on a Facebook fast so I don't have to see everyone's Thanksgiving posts, and keep reminding myself of how much I have been blessed with and try my best to "be joyful always."

A Lego Party

On Tuesday of this week I realized that we had talked about throwing a belated birthday party for Justin on Saturday.  (His 7th birthday happened while we were in the village.)  So I quickly emailed out invitations to his friends and tried to come up with ideas for a party.  Then it hit me.  Lego!  My boys love lego and spend hour after hour playing with them.  So a lego party it was!

As I looked online for ideas, I once again felt how hard it is to party plan here in Ukarumpa land.  Back home, all the shops and such are just down the road where you can buy party decorations or favors or whatever you need.  Not here.  Here, basically I have to use whatever we might have managed to bring over, or what I can make myself.  So I had to get creative.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found some ideas (and tons more that I just couldn't possibly do here).  I'm totally kicking myself now for not buying several Lego minifigures while I was in Australia in August to get Elijah's teeth fixed.  I literally stood at the Lego section in Target for a good 20-30 minutes staring at them, not able to figure out if I should buy some or not (the curse of returing to the excess of the 1st world after living in the 3rd world for so long!).  I ended up not buying them, and now I really regret it!  They would have made awesome party favors and game prizes!

We ended up with several Lego-themed games.

A "Guess how many Lego are in the jar" game.

Pin-the-Head on the Lego Man.

As usual, E had to get in on the fun.  Getting him to head the right direction was a challenge though!

He finally went the right way, and ended up being one of the closest!

A Lego relay race where the teams had to carry the all the Lego from one bucket to another, using only a serving spoon, and once they had all been transfered, be the first to build a tower using all the Lego.

Then we had presents........

E commandered J's new birthday cars!

 .....and cake.

Lego brick cake

"Lego"-men Jigglers

After the kids had eaten their fill, it was outside for a Lego pinata. 

Apparently, a pinata made out of a cereal box, toilet paper rolls cut in 3rds and tissue paper is just too strong.  We finally resorted to Matt pitching it to Nathan like a baseball, and that did the trick!

Candy!!!

We ended the party with Lego play.

Our Village Stay in Pictures (Fall 2013)

It's always easier to show than tell, so here's a look at our last village stay in pictures.

The Helicopter Ride:

We keep busy most days with school:

While Matt works on translation with our co-translators and a few others:

October is a busy birthday month for us!

 Miscellaneous shots: 

Mud, there always is mud!

 Visitors and a Care Package!  See http://christytaylor.blogspot.com/2013/10/visitors.html for details.

Saturday hikes and trips to the river to play:

Playing in the icy cold river!