Thanksgiving and Jeopardy

For Thanksgiving this year we really wanted to have dinner at our new home. Of course our 7 tons of stuff had just arrived (ok only two tons but felt like 7) three days before. But I was determined. I spent the entire three days organizing and unpacking and people, let me tell you- I was built for the foreign service. Packing and unpacking are my specialty! This was the most challenging moving feat I have accomplished, but I am pretty proud of myself.

But before I show you what the final product looked like for our Thanksgiving, the morning first. The interesting part about Thanksgiving overseas is the boys have school. We are off work though. So it worked out perfectly that Adam had an assembly that morning and he was hosting the Jeopardy! He was so excited about it and it was pretty perfect that both Randy and I were able to go. It was my first time at their school (and in the end with Covid, ended up being one of two times the whole year!) and it was such a cute school. Its smaller than the school in Manila but just the right size for our second grader and kindergartner.

I love that Adam was able to stand up in front of the entire elementary school and parents and launch right into what they were learning and discovering.

Complete with a jeopardy game!

After the assembly we got to go to Adam’s class and see what they are working on. Adam showed us his bean….

That grew into this!

Then it was back home to this one to get the turkey ready for our 20 guests. Good thing she was there to help!

I made this pie and it only cost me the tips of three of my fingers….

I forgot to take any photos once the boys got home from school and all our friends came, but it was a great dinner and so nice to celebrate Thanksgiving with our new friends. I’m going to go ahead and share all the pictures of our house. Some of these are from later, but I know you are all dying to see these so here you go. The apartment is split into two floors. There is a big living room and kitchen area. This is basically where we all are at all times, unless I am trying to hide from the kids 🙂 We watch tv here, eat most of our meals at the table in the kitchen, hang out on the porch and the kids insist on dragging their toys from the playroom out here. It’s comfy, super light and has an amazing view! This is the view from the back end.

We even have a cute glassed in balcony that we use a decent amount.

We also have a built in fish tank that is right in front of the front door. It is the first thing you see when you walk in. I wasn’t sure at first about this, but the kids love the fish and they have grown on me (maybe because they need no care, besides paying Maxim the super sweet fish whisperer to clean the tank twice a month).

The other side of this room across from the balcony we have this cool wall, which I never thought I would fill, but I did 🙂 I change it around every few days and can’t decide when it will be done, maybe never?

Behind the ever changing bookcase is the dining room. We are nowhere near this fancy and this room say empty for a while, but when the schools shut in March it came in super handy and became our classroom. Now that the boys are mostly back at school (this lets you know that I am 10 months behind on posts) it has morphed again into our puzzle room, more on that in ten months when I am finally caught up.

Off to the side is the guest room, which has become known as grandma’s room. She was our only guest before Covid and the boys still consider this her room.

Across from the guest room is the playroom. I had grand dreams of the kids playing in this room and well it just doesn’t happen. They just drag all their toys out to the living room. I know there are just too many toys in there and continually try to give some away, but so far the dragging method is still preferred.

Upstairs there are five bedrooms. Adam gets a room to himself, although he asked recently if his room was a store room because it’s the smallest room and has no en suite bathroom….um no Adam, but I see foreign service living has set the bar high.

Adam is forced to share a bathroom with Malcolm and Miral who share a room next door. I love both of these rooms, they are fun and bright.

Here is Miral’s side-

And here is Malcolms.

Across the hall is the office. I initially thought this office would never get used. Well joke is on me I guess because we have been working from home at least half of the last six months and this office is where Randy lives 9-6 when he is home. So I am glad I made it comfy!

Then there is our bedroom, that is super comfy and sunny. This is the way the room is at 5 am in the summer before anyone wakes up.

And then it turns into this.

And this

and on good days this.

In between the bedrooms there is a cute area at the top of the stairs that has all the kids book that I love.

Even the green kitchen has grown on me in this super cute, comfy apartment.

I know you have all had enough of this rambling Thanksgiving post, I can’t end without mentioning a visit from Adam’s first friend and my first post baby friend, Carrie and Simone. They flew from Dubai the day after Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see them! We hung out with their other first baby friend, Eli whose parents are also posted in Ukraine (small, small world).