Día de Gracias

By: Ella and Sydney Martin

Sydney and Grandpa

We have all been getting a bit more homesick with the holidays coming, so we decided we needed a real Thanksgiving Day.  When my mom and dad saw the price of turkey in this country, they gave us a choice: to skip the big meal and go to the beach or to celebrate as we normally would in the states. We all (the kids) chose to stay home, cook, and celebrate. (We did cook chickens instead and just pretended they were turkeys.)

Poor Amelie!

My grandparents were already visiting, but we thought we needed to make the house as full and festive as possible. We started inviting people and the numbers just grew and grew until we had 23! They were made up of other missionaries and other Nicaraguans.  It was fun to cook a fully "American" meal for our Nicaraguan friends who have been cooking us typical Nicaraguan meals since we arrived. It may have been the first meal I've had here without rice in it. 

Our neighbor, Sonia, brought sparkling cider, a real treat here.

Our Nica friends were excited about the huge amount of mashed potatoes. They are a real luxury here. They didn't know what the gravy was for and tried to eat it like a soup. The kids went crazy when they saw the amount of brownies and fudge on the table.

Our neighbors, Julio and Marjory

More neighbors, Suyen and Natalie

It is strange, even for us now, to have a meal where everything was roasted in the oven instead of fried. It was also weird that it was so hot out during Thanksgiving. 

Gavin with Jose Domingo and Emilio

We didn't have enough tables or chairs so we borrowed some and some people sat on the floor. We didn't have the huge selection of foods we have had other years (like pies or cranberries), but we had a lot more people and that made it better. We even told them the story of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.

Lydia kept us all safe.

Everyone went around and said what they were thankful for this year. We did this at home other years too, but our answers were usually like, "candy", "movies", "video games", or whatever could get us through our turn quickly....  This year, our friends told us what they were seriously thankful for with tears in their eyes. Giving thanks isn't a joking matter here. They don't take anything they have been given for granted.

We ended the day praying for each other instead of napping or shopping or going back for third helpings of food. Then my grandma and Dayana's mom started dancing to the Christmas music.


Everyone wanted their pictures taken in front of the Christmas tree. We bought a small fake tree this year. We were complaining to ourselves when we put it up, that it wasn't as big and beautiful as the trees we have had at home in North Carolina. Our Nica friends all commented on how huge and pretty it looked, and we felt bad for complaining.

Ella and Dayana

It was fun!! I can't wait for Christmas.