Israeli Thanksgiving Day Madness

     I was lucky enough to spend my first Serbian/Belgrade Thanksgiving with the Israel family. On the agenda: service to the Roma children and then fantastic foodage. Well, in true Israel style, things didn't go exactly as planned. They were even better.

   

Minor Disaster #1: While washing dishes (she managed to not only cook everything, but keep a clean kitchen) Randi placed all the dirty utensils in what she thought was a dirty measuring cup...when in fact it was her delicious coffee that she had been carrying around to maintain her sanity.

While we were making goody bags for the Roma children, Kyle was listening (intently) to the Veggie Tale audio stories from Chick-fil-A that my mom was kind enough to send.

This is the Roma Goody Bag Assembly Line. Brooke would add fruit to a delightful yellow napkin, Connor would then place a chocolate bar and a small toy and I would tie a bright red ribbon around it. *More to come on this in the next post.

Minor Disaster #2: While we were making the goody bags, Connor's much anticipated Peanut Butter brownies met a near disastrous end. This photo was taken on the balcony were they had been placed to cool...along with all the drinks. It is cold enough now that you can use your balcony as a second refrigerator.

The wonderful Randi simply scraped off the burned parts and drizzled chocolate on it. An excellent save that made it more like a peanut butter cup and induced Connor to eat almost half.

Before lunch and while we were watching for Roma children, Randi placed the rolls on the radiator to rise.

Minor Disaster #3: The rolls rose over the side of the bowl and down into the radiator.

Randi saved the day by letting her children play with the dough scooped from the radiator. While the rolls never fully recovered, there was no lasting damage to the radiator. The rolls looked like sugar cookies, but actually were delicious.

The table ready for the Israels plus one. In the foil covered plate was turkey gold. Almost 20 bucks for half a breast. Ridiculous.

And then I skyped my family! They were insane as usual, but we had lots of fun.

Flat Amy was holding down the fort in Mississippi and having all sorts of culinary adventures of her own.

After we ate, we played a few rounds of card games. While I lost some Uno rounds, I bested the Israels at Polish Poker, Spoons and BS. This is the score sheet from Polish Poker. It is so unusual to beat these guys that I just may keep this forever. Randi's final score of 53 could be considered the only legitimate Thanksgiving Day Disaster.

I will be forever be grateful to the Israel's for hosting me on this day of families and for showing me that laughter happens all over the world. As for all our near disasters....it was better this way.