The Rest of Our Home and Thanksgiving

I finished cleaning our home and getting pictures set up on Wednesday! I was so proud of myself. I tried not to overdo it, but I had to get it done! We can't hang the pictures on the walls by ourselves. We have to call the Embassy to place a work order for maintenance to come hang the pictures up for us. I don't think I want to bother since we will only be here for another 32 months.

Our entry hall. The open door leads to the basement. I didn't take any pictures of that area, there is only the garage, food storage room, and my craft room. There's also a "water closet" off of this entry hall. The stairs to the bedroom area are also off this hall.

Looking into the living room from the entry hall. Our television isn't watched much, but it keeps us entertained in the evenings.

Looking from the fireplace and piano into the main living room area.

The living room is "L" shaped. This is looking from the Office/crochet/reading alcove.

I love having a fireplace! This one sits in the corner of the living room. We don't plan on using it since our home is nicely insulated and stays comfortable, unlike our drafty Italian home.

The piano in the living room. We are waiting for the first of the year and things to kind of settle down before we find a piano teacher for Kaitlyn. I hope we can find one that is reasonablly priced.

Office/reading/crochet alcove of the living room. Aren't the doors to the dining room cute!!

The "office" in the living room alcove. We finally got the internet hookup so we don't have to "piggyback" off the neighbors wireless. I keep our family history books here so that I can work on them whenever the mood strikes me.

My crochet/reading corner! I love it! The cabinet holds extra blankets.

Sneak peak from the office/reading/crochet alcove into the dining room. I love these doors! We can completely shut off each room on this floor to keep them warm!

Looking from the living room area side into the dining room. The glass door going to the big backyard. The back patio has a retractable awning!

Looking into the dining room from the kitchen. I LOVE the china hutch! A small painting by Aimee.

Dining room looking from the glass doors to the back door. Those are some of my souveniours from Italy. The painting is one that Aimee did of Cinque Terre, Italy.

Here is our kitchen. The stove, like our in our Italian home, is "Barbie" size, it barely fits one 9x13 pan.

This is our European frig. It is barely six feet tall, the freezer has three drawers in it and is on the bottom half. The top half is barely big enough to hold a weeks worth of groceries. It's a good thing we have another one exactly like it downstairs.

This is the door from the kitchen to the entry hall. The white cabinet hides a microwave.

So this year we had two sets of missionaries that are assigned to our ward over for Thanksgiving dinner. One set had to go to France for a meeting or something and they didn't get back to Brussels until about 630 pm, so we didn't eat until 730! It was great! We really missed having or family with us, but we made do.

I really enjoyed cooking this year! I know that's a shocker, but I did! We have relied on Wendy to do all the cooking and stuff, because that is what she loves to do, for so long that I forgot how much I enjoy cooking. I realize that some of what I made wasn't "homemade," but why put myself in more pain than necessary? If it comes in a box and is good tasting, I'm okay with that. Dave helped me with a lot of the cooking, so that I could enjoy it as well as everyone else.

Oh thank goodness for pumpkin bread in a box! It made the house smell so yummy! And it was delicious!!

Thank you "Mrs. Smith" for the delicious pumpkin and apple pies!

Our Thanksgiving Dinner 2010. We had ham, real mashed potatoes, grean bean casserole, stuffing, Belgian rolls, crackers with hot spinach dip, vegetable tray with dip. It was so yummy! And the best part, NO leftovers! ALL the leftovers went home with the missionaries! We hope that your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!