This year felt pretty close to perfect- with a Brazilian twist of course.
Also, I have very talented friends. Hannah made the gorgeous flower bouquets, and RaKae made these Thankful Trees. After each person said why they are grateful, we all wrote it down on these tags and put them up. Such a sweet tradition, definitely doing it every year!
Another tradition we decided to try was a variety show. My mom's side does it every year, and everyone has fun with it. It was a "anything goes" theme, so we had quite the range. Everything from a show-and-tell of their recent drawing, Hannah and Daniel dancing to the Nutcracker, playing the guitar, kids singing primary songs, and rapping to Ice Ice Baby. (That would be Alex and I..)
We've come a looong way from last Thanksgiving. And I have so much to be grateful for.
For starters, Alex now knows the words to Ice Ice Baby, and therefore is cultured.
I am a mom! And to see Alex as a dad has made me love him even more. It is hard to put into words.
Our circle of friends has grown a lot. Honestly, I couldn't have said last year that I was truly grateful to be in Brazil. I was really lonely (pregnancy hormones flying all over the place didn't help), Alex was traveling about 4 hours roundtrip to work every day, and we found even the little things so frustrating. I'm not sure I realized how unhappy I was until I looking back from where I am now.
A huge part of that has been due to friends! Being from such a large family, I have always considered my siblings to be my best friends. Of course I always had friends and cherish the relationships with them, but there is nothing like family. So that's what I always relied on, and I never considered myself as a big "friend person". But being so far away from family, I realized how much you need relationships! In a way, we've been creating a big Brazilian family here with Americans and Brazilians alike. It's awesome.
Not to mention, I'm so grateful for our ward. (Aka our local congregation.) It is full of the most generous, welcoming, and giving people.
Overall I feel like we are starting to get the Brazil thing down. Portuguese however still needs to improve.
