Thanksgiving Turkey-Style

All right. Let's get the first item of business crossed off your list. Yes, we had Turkey in Turkey. There we go. Snicker, snicker, snicker everyone.

We also had lamb, but since we don't live in lamb that isn't nearly as funny now is it?

Anyways, now that that order of business is over with, I'll state another obvious. Thanksgiving outside of America is different. The trash is still picked up. The grocery stores are open. People are at work. Kids are going to school.

But a tiny Base near Adana Turkey celebrated. Riding your bike around Base you could smell Turkey and pies with every pedal you pushed! Glorious. Kids were out of school. Many active duty personnel were given the day off.

Another reason why living on Base here is so wonderful.

We had a group of our dearest friends over to our house around 3pm Turkey-time. And, thanks to Linda, who is more determined than me, we did get some pretty good photos.

Linda and Shane, the newlyweds, with our little Elijah. Linda is the pediatrician on Base. She and Shane are two of our dearest friends here. And we like having some friends without kids because they don't require so much "work" to schedule time with. Both Isaac and Elijah adore Shane and Linda. Elijah will quickly start saying, "Sssshhh" every time Shane comes in (his attempt at saying the name 'Shane.') In addition, they are our Scrubs-watchers so Scrubs adores them too. (Shane and Linda are STILL waiting on two of their crates to arrive from the U.S! Ugh!)

Elijah was loving hanging out with Linda. I think he was flirting with her while they watched some Mary Poppins together.

Here are Linda and Elijah with Erin. We don't hang out with Erin quite as regularly, but she is a single female officer here on Base that we met during one of our first days at Incirlik. She also makes some mean homemade apple sauce!

We had hoped to eat outside, but the bugs had other ideas. Turkish flies are horrendous! Dinner was served inside, but the kiddos still had a great time playing outside.

He's growing up so fast. I truly can't believe he is really our little boy.

Ryan and William. Unfortunately, Stebbs couldn't join them. She has been laid out all weekend with a nasty stomach virus. We are hopeful the rest of us won't get it. These stomach bugs are pretty common here and spread quickly with such a small Base.

Here's little Rowan.

And here's her Mom, Angelica, and brother, Noah. Love this family! They live right behind us which is just wonderful.

Here's Sarahbee with the adorable Peter. Believe it or not, Sarahbee almost went into the convent in Nashville where my dear friend Kelsey is at now. Her hubby Dan had to work on Thanksgiving, but we were blessed to have them share the day with us.

Isaac was asleep for the beginning part of the day -- thus the reason for all the pics with Elijah. He's just been learning how to smile. If we say, "Show us some teeth!" this is what we get.

Here's William. He is probably Elijah's first best friend. Here's a post Stebbs did on their friendship. One thing they have in common is an equal love of all things Mickey Mouse. (I think it's funny that William's favorite character is Pete -- the 'bad' guy!)

The men in the kitchen! Isn't that a wonderful thing? From left, JB, Dan, Ryan, and Shane right as JB got ready to carve the turkey. (And what an amazing turkey it was by the way. He had to do it without a meat thermometer -- long story -- but it came out so perfectly done. And I don't even like Turkey that much. He cooked it upside down which really seemed to help the juices.)

Another shot of 'the man' Peter!

Here's Noah and Dan inspecting the stuffing. "Looks good Dad!"

Shane and Isaac (who finally decided to wake up from his nap and join us.) I was so excited that Isaac got to talk to Bri on Thanksgiving via Skype. He is really into Skype now. He'll actually sit by himself and just have conversations. He doesn't even want me to sit with him. We also got to talk to Keith and AD, my parents, and most of JB's family. (Don't Isaac's legs look long here!)

Shane and Linda in front of our new map wall in the play room. We are hoping to find a second clock. The one up there now tells the time back home in South Florida. It's very helpful so that we don't always have to calculate. You can't see it, but we have a world map next to the U.S. map. We continue to learn our States (I'd say Isaac has about 1/3 of them down). Both boys have learned the Turkey and U.S. flags as well.

Across the world, we were blessed by good friends -- our surrogate family -- as well as the ability to not feel so far away with Skype. Thank you Lord for small blessings. Hope you all had as wonderful a day as we did.