A dinner with friends.

What is the most wonderful thing for any family with small kids is the opportunity to start family traditions. And that is what we have been up to. Since the girls are growing now we keep the traditions from the past years and add on to them, as the kids start coming up with ideas and kind of take over the family celebrations.
To save ourselves some time I set up the table in the evening. It was more like 12 in the morning as I was not ready to go to bed just yet. The girls made the individual cards for everybody, even Milana was able to participate and made a card for Evan, who was delighted to hold it in his little hands before dinner.
I also managed to make a "Mayflower" ship as a morning surprise for the kids. As we set down to have the feast, we read out loud the little cards that kids had written on what they were thankful for. It was too cute. Among other things, there were a lot of "thanks" for Mom, Dad, sisters, a brother, house, toys, animals, flowers, holidays, Grandma, Grandpa, friends and we all smiled at an "avrithing" card.
It was decided beforehand that the host family would be "Indians" and the guest family would be "the Pilgrims". The initial meet and greet was truly grand! Our friends pulled over with the three of their older kids sitting on top of the mini van as if they were on a "Mayflower". From our side, we had the girls dress up as Native Americans. But, mostly, our Tata made it the most fun for all. Ready to hear this? I was a little worried about the neighbors, but quickly it stopped to be a concern of mine as were belly laughing. He stripped to his waist, stuck a rabbit skin behind the belt of his pans, put on a head band with a turkey feather, grabbed a stick to simulate a spear and was running like mad pretending to be a warrior.
The dinner was fantabulous, very delicious and the leftovers lasted us for almost four days. The five frozen kernels of corn on each plate was a small reminder for everybody of the times of hardship for the first settlers.
I think we did a great job trying to keep the spirit of one of our most favorite American holidays. With talent show before the dessert time and playing games the day was very eventful and it was great to relax before the fire and enjoy a few quite moments before heading off to bed.