Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankfully, Annie invited us to join her family for Thanksgiving in Leawood, KS. I say Leawood like it's far away but it was only about 15 minutes south of our house. I was really excited for our first American Thanksgiving. I was nervous at first about invading a family's dinner but they seemed happy to have us and sometimes it can be fun to have new people at the dinner, not just as a buffer but the conversation is always more fun. We joined Annie, her parents, and her younger sister and brother. Her mom made an amazing meal with all the traditional foods. One interesting (and delicious) change was that Maureen put candied pecans on top of her sweet potatoes. That was new to me but it was so good. After dinner we had pumpkin pie and I started to worry I would run out of insulin because I ate everything! Somehow I managed to save room for the raspberry coconut squares I brought. They were a big hit!

Because we finished our meal by 6pm we decided to head down to the plaza for the annual Lighting Ceremony. Thousands of people cram into the plaza streets (blocking traffic and causing drunken mayhem) to watch all the buildings light up simultaneously. I might sound a little unimpressed but the people who set up the lights have been testing them at night to get everything ready for the past week and when you're up at 3:45am each day, driving through the plaza, you loose the anticipation- but like most group activities, the mob excitement is the reason you go.

The band, the Elders (an amazing Irish band from KC) opened the night and lead up the switch being flipped. After the plaza lit up there was a short burst of fireworks and everyone immediately turned on their heels to go home. We were only in the plaza for about 20 minutes but it starts to put you in the holiday mood.

There is a beautiful old hotel on the plaza and every year it's sold out for the light up ceremony. When we were leaving I noticed all the people standing at their windows. It looked so cool! I wish I would have stopped to get a better picture but the crowds were pretty intense!