Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever! Psalm 107:1
Instead of scrambling to figure out where I would eat some Turkey and who I would spend the day with, Thanksgiving this year was spent with Josiah Venture friends and family in the Czech Republic.
Wednesday was the start of the holiday for us as we all gathered together at Josiah Venture's hotel/conference center (Malenovice). The evening was spent catching up with other missionaries who serve in the surrounding countries (Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary). After dinner, a group of us played a dice game called "Farkle" or "Zilch" (depending on what name you prefer). I really enjoyed this. My family would play this together at times before I moved to Europe. I always liked playing it because of the lack of strategy in it. Simply, you simply role your dice and add up your points. It's really gets fun when the roles get high!
Thursday...Thursday was the big day. We started things off by running a 5 kilometer race around the local lake at 8:00 am. My un-official time was 24:30 (if anyone is interested). Not too bad considering it was about 32 degrees outside and I had stayed up a little too late the night before finishing some prep work for my contribution to the meal the next day.
After running the 5k, the next event on the agenda was flag football. Oh, how I was excited for this! If you didn't know, I played football for about 6 years in high school and middle school. Thanksgiving = re-living the glory days. #rudythemesong
The old days were nothing like thanksgiving though. It was fun to be able to play with some of the older guys who were missing it as well, and also to be able to teach some of the younger third culture kids who are pretty unfamiliar with it.
FOOD! Need I say more?
Another special part to the day was the talent show for the kids after everyone had woken up from their food comas. There were a lot of laughs and sweet moments, and generally a lot of talent. I was quite impressed by many of the of the music performances and art presentations. Start them young!
