Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends. It's an annual thing we do to open up our pavilion to the community and have a potluck meal together. This year did not disappoint.
It was a lovely morning and great way to start the day! I believe we only had a tiny bit of sprinkles on Thursday and some fog in the afternoon. We were so glad it wasn't pouring rain!
Instead of getting a turkey, I've found that I can feed more people for cheaper with 4 chickens. I got them all ready to go in the oven early in the morning - nothing fancy - salt, pepper, some fresh oregano, butter, and on a bed of celery.
The kids all helped clean. This was a two day process. The outside bathrooms were scrubbed, stuff was put away, everything was tidied up, all the tables and chairs were cleaned, and the floor of the pavilion was swept and scrubbed to remove any algae from the rainy season. The kids also colored some papers with Bible verses on them about being thankful that they hung up in the pavilion.
The 28th is also an independence day for Panama, so there was a huge parade. It was set to start around 10, and we were told it would last all day. We weren't sure if that would keep people from coming. Around 12:00 when we were set to start, quite a few people messaged me that they didn't know how to get across Main Street, so I tried to help them find a way to get through. As far as I know, everyone made it. The parade went until 2:30 am and had 68 bands! Yikes!
My oldest daughter and two of her friends came early to help make flower arrangements. We had bought 2 bouquets the day before, so they just spruced them up. It ended up making 6 nice arrangements with all the weeds and flowers they found around the neighborhood. I think they did a better job than I could have!
I used whatever I had for the flower arrangements - old spaghetti jars, a couple of vases, and even a few taller bottles. They turned out so cute!
We hung up the "Give Thanks" banner I made years ago and some other banners around the pavilion. Food and friends started to arrive around 12:00!
I had a plan to make a few items. I had bought a bunch of carrots, so I boiled them up and added some sugar and butter to them. They tasted really good!
The chickens turned out good. They cooked way longer than an hour, and I'm pretty sure I took out the second batch when they had just gotten up to temperature. Every bit of the chicken was gone at the end. We also had quite a few more chickens, chicken breast, and even a whole deep fried turkey! There was plenty of meat!
This is my first time having people sign a guest book. I haven't counted, but we know we put out 97 chairs and they were all filled, so we know we had about 100 people! There were people from everywhere - the US, Canada, Malta, Norway, South Africa, and other countries! It was an international affair! I knew most of the people there, but there were a lot of people who met others for the first time.
We also made some punch with 2 3 liters of fruit punch, some orange and pineapple juice we froze in ice cube trays, and a 2 liter of ginger ale. Goodness did this punch go quickly! The only other drink was a 2 liter of Coke.
My son also made crustless pumpkin pie. It was really good! There weren't many desserts, so whatever there was went quickly! It was all yummy!
There was plenty of food, even for 100 people! We had very few leftovers at the end and everyone had a great time! The last friends left at 6:15. They had already told us goodbye three times and kept coming up with things to talk about with the other stragglers. Ha!
It was really a great day and we're so thankful for our community! They're a great group and everyone enjoyed the food and fellowship!
Check out our video about this Thanksgiving event and last year's candlelight Christmas service -
