HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Dear Family,

On Thanksgiving our hearts turn to all of you and hope your holiday is a beautiful, relaxed, with friends & family time and your hearts of course are full of gratitude.
Since we don't get to be with any of you, could we ask you to share just one or two Thanksgiving memories of the past, and where you were last year!

I'll start:  One Thanksgiving in Brussels, Brynn Huntsman invited us over.  She claimed Thanksgiving was a 'slave day for women' and so they catered a meal at the cafeteria at the Huntsman Company and the women did NO WORK or cooking at all.  There were tons of people and it was all catered and since those who catered were working on a normal day anyway, it was a win/win for everyone.

Another memory was the Thanksgiving that my Mom was married.  I flew to AZ and Tom and all the kids were left behind in Brussels.  We had invited his cousin Dorothy and her family that year.  I had prepared what I could in advance, but Tom was in charge.  Dorothy didn't help so Tom did it all!

Last one:  I hate the cooking part, but never minded the cleaning up.  Mom let me ski all day on Thanksgiving day as long as I was back for the 4:00 meal and then cleaned up.  Perfect!
And last year (2016)we were in San Diego with Seth's family and their friends the Christensens.

Now over to all of you!  If we don't get to talk to you all b/c of schedules and having so much fun, no problem.  This will be our way to share the day together, okay?  xoxo, Mom

I remember that Thanksgiving with Dad’s cousin.  I’m going to pin point that as the exact moment I started getting pissed off when people don’t pull their weight.  “These freakin potatoes aren’t going to mash themselves.”

I have great Thanksgiving memories.  The turkey bowl with the priesthood up on the BAS football field and many other turkey bowls since.  The colors and food up in Driggs.  I love the traditional meal.  Pies with fresh whipped cream and day after turkey sandwiches with cranberry and mashed potato in the sandwich too.  I realize I’ll never fully understand the extent of the work that goes into prepping the meal but I definitely am grateful for it.  Clean up is the easy part!😉

We’ll be in Zions Park tomorrow.  We’re going to hike the Narrows and then we’re considering building a fire and doing turkey foil dinners (red neck imu).  I’m excited to make more Thanksgiving memories tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving, my family!  Love you all!

Dan

On Nov 22, 2017, at 4:05 PM, Natalie Portugal <natalieportugal@hotmail.com> wrote:

What a great idea mom. Love these memories from you and Seth.

I remember the year you essentially said if we don’t help and stop whining then Thanksgiving is cancelled. What a bunch of brats we were. We didn’t want to help cook and we didn’t want to help clean up. So we went to Domus. The missionaries came with us. 

We have spent the last 12 Thanksgivings with Noel’s sister’s family. She cooked the turkey every year but one. Mostly because she wanted to and I was happy to let her. Haha. This will be our first Thanksgiving without them! 😢

We are cooking our turkey Hawaiian style in an imu this year!

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 22, 2017, at 11:27 AM, Seth Herway <seth.herway@gmail.com> wrote:

I remember the Thanksgiving where you were gone and dad was in charge. I also have good memories of a few Thanksgivings with Dan and Lara in Driggs when I was single. I remember being just off my mission and watching Brandon Doman score the winning touchdown in LaVell Edwards last game against Utah with Blake and Dan there.

We have had the last 7 Thanksgivings with our friends the Christensen's since we both were living far away from family and it's been nice to have someone to share the holiday with. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

This is great!  Thanks to my (eternal) companion.  She had this idea on our walk last night. 

I remember as a kid my mother making huge amounts of food for Thanksgiving.  She lived in the kitchen.  They did that back then.  Mike and my favorite was the mince meat pie.  Good ol' Edna.  After dinner the men would go watch football for hours. When we lived in Maryland we would spend Thanksgiving with my uncle Bodge Bowles' family who lived in Annandale, very near from our house on Sabra Lane.  That is why we bought a house in that area.  

I loved that Natalie remembered going to Domus for Thanksgiving.  I can't remember if that was out of pity for Mom or if she insisted on it.  Probably the latter.  

Turkey Bowls at the BAS football field were a tradition in Belgium.  Thanks, Dan.   I remember we played tackle football one year and, just as I was trying to juke someone, Rob Wadsworth locked up both my legs in a vice grip from out of nowhere and sent me smack down face first.   I'll never forget that helpless feeling.  

Happy Thanksgiving.  Love to all.

Dad

Jake:  I got my wisdom teeth removed one Thanksgiving. I was wrestling so it helped keep weight. Came back to school and one of the Patterson boys asked how much pie I had eaten. When I searched why he asked, he said he could tell I’d put in weight in my cheeks. Still swollen. I think. 

One year I learned that I can do more than toast in the kitchen.  I can also do mashed potatoes. Thanks Mom. 

IHOP with Mom, Dad and Steve in Charlotte. Mom convinced us turkeys were overrated. Pancakes aren’t. We got a lot of raking in that year too. 

Renting cabins in the Poconos the last few years with friends. 

Macy’s parade.



Nicole:   This is fun to read memories that are part of my memory too: going to Domus with the missionaries on Thanksgiving, the Huntsman catered Thanksgiving (which was not even CLOSE to the quality of Mom's cooking, but I get the joy of having it catered), Jake's wisdom teeth Thanksgiving (i remember praying that I didn't have wisdom teeth that night!), and many many Thanksgivings with the Portugals at the Durst's house in TX.

 One of my favorites so far: Mom surprised Grandma at Natalie's for Thanksgiving in 2012. If I recall correctly, Grandma thought she was going to be with only the Portugals, but then Mom and I came as a surprise. Grandma started crying when she saw Mom. It was so sweet. We made a full, legit, homemade Thanksgiving and it was divine. We played card games constantly, talked even more constantly, and had a blast with 4 generations there (Gma, Mom, Natalie/me, Portugal girls). Definitely one to always remember.

This one was my first real "parenthood" Thanksgiving. Cora threw up for the second time in her entire life TODAY...TWICE. Poor thing. She felt better by the time we had Thanksgiving (with Aunt Suzanne), but the poor girl only was able to stomach a single roll. Yet in the evening she told me all about how wonderful Thanksgiving was and how she liked the turkey and the mashed potatoes and the pie. She's a sweet one, that girl.

From Steve:

I remember the Huntsman Thanksgiving. I spent most of the time running around with Rachel Huntsman and Kimmie Harrison playing hide and seek in all the empty offices.

I also remember going to IHOP with Jake and Mel in NC. They had just barely moved into their apartment and weren't equipped to host a Thanksgiving dinner so we casually figured we would just go out to eat somewhere. As we drove around nearly every single restaurant was closed or required a very advanced reservation with the exception of IHOP and Waffle House. I voted for Waffle House, but was overruled.

Other than those two I don't have very specific Thanksgiving memories. In general, I remember a lot of food and favoring the stuffing - which is a crime because that's probably the food item that Mom put the least amount of work into. I don't recall doing any Turkey Bowls at BAS. I do remember doing dishes. Lots of dishes.

I got spoiled rotten this Thanksgiving. We took Felicia's brother, Bradley, to a friend's house from NY; they have a kid that plays really well with Kent. The friends prepared most of the food (they had a 30 lbs turkey!!!) then Felicia prepared a couple of sides and a gluten-free pumpkin pie, which meant little to no clean up for us! Not to mention the NY friends prepared a true NY cheesecake. Mm mm, good! Afterwards I took a nap on the couch while Kent played with his friend, then woke up in time to watch the Redskins beat the Giants.

S-p-o-i-l-e-d.

And that's a Thanksgiving wrap for 2018.  Thanks for sharing everybody.  You are a fun group.  We are thankful for each of you.  Now you are each in the process of creating your own Thanksgiving memories with your kids:  don't you wonder what they will remember????  We have had some good laughs and have enjoyed reliving some of those experiences through your memories!   Love you all!    xoxo Mom and Dad

Dads final comments:

Steve-o is right.  The Turkey Bowl was in the early years of our sojourn in Belgium.    

I think it ended when the Mulhollands left (late 90s).  So he missed out.  Sorry.  But basically it was just us getting all muddy and bruised.  So you didn't miss out on much, Steve.  

I have to tell you here in Italy they make a big deal about "Black Friday".   All the stores have signs advertising Black Friday sales.  But they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.  So how can there be a Black Friday without Thanksgiving?  Makes no sense. 

Maybe Noel will understand Thanksgiving better if you tell him we have it so we can have Black Friday. 

Fun Photos from November

Today we really needed a breath of fresh air so we took a 1/2 hour ride from our apartment and found a sandy and clean beach!  Hard to find in Italy and it's at our back door, who would have guessed.  This tower was bombed by the US in WWII.  Bummer.

Girls day out.  From left:  DeAnn, Laurie, and Cynthia.  Laurie is the wife of the building supervisor of the Rome temple.  DeAnn is the wife of the garden architect of the temple, and Cynthia is the mission nurse.

Area of Rome I had never seen....great street art.  The area is Testaccio.  I also learned about a new food called Trapizzino...basically a sandwich, but quite tasty.

The pyramid in the middle of Rome.  Of course, makes perfect sense.

At our Refugee Couple conference in Athens we took a few days with the Scovilles (the other Italian refugee couple) to see a few sights near Athens.  This was the Poseidon Temple an hour south.

We also took 2 days to drive to Meteora again.  With the Scovilles.  It's still a jaw dropper.

Don't you think?  I had a hard time picking just two photos.

The Scovilles and the Herways at the Parthenon.

We saw Pope Francis.  He gave a speech on All Saints Day.  He even started out "Dear Brothers and Sisters"  (Caro Fratelli e Sorelli)

There are 4 major basilicas in Rome, and we finally made it to St. Pauls without the walls.  Right on the metro line.  So we have seen them all now.  The best?  Still St. Peters, but if you want to skip the lines, then this is 2nd best.

Inside of St Pauls Basilica.  Truly incredible.