Thanksgiving Prep: Day One

Both Mike and I are super excited for our Thanksgiving dinner next weekend.  I think Mike is excited to show his classmates what Thanksgiving is all about and I'm excited for all of the delicious food (and meeting Mike's classmates).  I think we're also both excited to try and do this ourselves, even if it is a little lot of pressure.

It's taking a lot of planning and preparation, but I'm confident that it'll all be a success. I've been consulting with the queen of Thanksgiving, my mom, who is a pro at hosting the big day.  She's sent me recipes and even her week long schedule, so I'm following her directions and trying to get things done ahead of time.

I knew there would be a few kitchen supplies that we needed, so today was shopping day.  We set out for IKEA, which is at the outdoor mall.  It's the closest thing we have to a Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond.  We needed a baster, a brush for meat, a springform pan for cheesecake, and a gravy boat.  I thought we'd be able to get almost everything at IKEA, but didn't have high hopes of finding the springform pan.  IKEA turned out to be a complete disappointment.  It's one of those stores that seems to have everything, but nothing at the same time.  It had all sorts of kitchen gadgets, including a potato masher and apple corer, but nothing that we needed.  We walked around the outdoor mall hoping to find somewhere that sold kitchen appliances and just as we were about to give up and go home, we stumbled upon five kitchen appliance stores in a row!  Not only did we find a baster, a gravy boat and a meat brush, WE FOUND A SPRINGFORM PAN!  Guys, this is like finding a needle in a haystack.  Hello, dad's cheesecake!

It may have taken us an hour to get home thanks to Izmir driving and traffic, but we were so happy to have all of our supplies that it didn't even matter (well, Mike was a little frustrated, but I was so happy I didn't even care).

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day and then the week of cooking and cleaning begins! Mike's been watching videos on how to prepare and carve a turkey, while I've been making lists upon lists of stuff to do.

We did take a break to video chat with our favorite Goddaughter last night and if she hadn't already won Mike's heart over, she managed to do so last night :)

Watching Mom walk away to go heat up a bottle (aka lunch)

Wait, Mom, don't leave me!!

Hi Emma!!

November 6th: I'm thankful for the movie theater that shows movies in English! We went to see the new James Bond movie in English last night. It was actually really good and it's so nice to be able to keep up with American pop culture a little bit.

November 7th: I'm thankful for that little lady and her mamma in the pictures above.  Emma had a rough entry to the world, but she's doing so well now and both Mike and I love watching her grow over video chat.  And her mom, well she's pretty awesome too.  She's always so excited to hear about our lives and is an avid blog reader.  I can't say enough about how thankful I am for her.  Oh and how could we forget the third Fick?  I think Mike Hogan is especially grateful for him, but I appreciate him too.  He keeps his girls in line :)