November 21-29

A family in the ward also lives in Bad Godesberg, and they gave us a ride home from church. Their son Tommy (14) has Down's Syndrome and he is so sweet. His dad is from Germany and his mom is from the US, so he speaks fluent English and German- amazing, right?! He absolutely adores to take pictures with the iPhone, and every time we ride with them, he asks "C-c-c-camera?!" and then we take pictures together. 

We decided to make silly faces, which he loved.

Not my best look, but he chose the face so I had to follow.

So fun! (After we get out of the car and go inside, I delete at least 40 pictures- Tommy has a trigger finger)

Nate, getting on his down coat before we went for a walk on a Sunday night. We love to wear our pajamas, get all bundled up, and then walk and look at the beautiful houses in our neighborhood. 

Thanksgiving dinner! A couple days before, I had found cilantro at a Farmer's Market, which is very difficult to find anywhere, and I really wanted to use it. I also wanted to try a recipe for spiced cilantro steak and since Nate and I rarely eat meat, I thought it would be fun to have. I was going to make the dinner on Wednesday night, but I had to go help my visiting teachee so it got bumped back, coincidentally to Thursday/Thanksgiving. Additionally, black beans in a can do not exist anywhere around here. So I had to soak the black beans and then cook them for a couple hours. This meal was a lot of work! But the Pico de Gallo salsa was so delish, and we really enjoyed everything. Got us excited for eating when we visit California! 

We love FaceTime! We talked with Nate's family right before they had their big meal :)

My first homemade pie! It was a lot of work, and it made me appreciate all of the berry cobblers that Sarah added crusts to the bottom, just because they taste so good. This was an apple pie from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and it wasn't too complicated. Just lots of steps. Nate had to teach me how to do the lattice top because I studied the pictures and couldn't figure it out. 

This is our friend Damon and his daughter Elyse. He is a pilot for Fed Ex and they are from California! They moved here a year ago, and they are the other American family in our ward. They made turkey and stuffing with Penzey's spices! And also sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie with natural ingredients- everything tasted so distinct and exactly how it was supposed to. A real Thanksgiving dinner!

These people are teachers at the Bonn International School and they are all American, so we had Thanksgiving on Saturday with them. It was so fun! They all have very interesting stories and we learned a lot about the culture of international schools. 

Our hostess, Suzie made everything look so festive! 

And Suzie also made the MOST delicious cranberry-walnut-orange relish to go with the turkey, and it was so good that, for the first time, I had seconds of turkey (just so I could have more relish).