Giving Thanks and other thoughts

Post-Thanksgiving by a full day, going on two, and I am still exhausted and somehow full. I never knew that Thanksgiving was so much work. I´ll give you a day by day account of our preparations.
Nov 9th: Our first meeting to talk about who we wanted to invite, when to have it, and what we wanted to make. Not much got done besides picking the day and a facebook event was made to see how many people were going to come.
Nov 23rd: we had our second official meeting to talk about food and what to buy. We decided to hold the dinner on the fourth floor tv room, for a more homely feel.
Nov 24th: I went shopping for food with Derek, Laura, Jills, and Birgir. We spent over an hour in Bonous and then another forty in Hagkaup. It was a successful trip besides the lack of pumpkin and rhubarb. Birgir´s trunk was so full I thought his car wouldn´t be able to move. I was disappointed that we couldn´t find pumpkin anywhere and when my friend Rebekka asked if we found everything I told her we couldn´t find pumpkin and luckily she had a half a pumpkin and she knew of a place close by that sells them! That put me in a good mood.
Nov 25th: After class I walked to this little organic foods place and got the last three baby pumpkins! I asked if they were going to get more tomorrow and he said that he ordered too many this time - so praise Jesus he did, or else our dinner may have been pumpkin-free. After my other class we started to bake. I prepared the pumpkin for pies and my pumpkin rolls. (Pumpkin is hard when you have to make it from scratch). Every kitchen was full of Americans cooking. It was great.
Nov 26th: The big day! Derek and I put the turkeys in around 11:30am and I started to cook stuffing after that. (after lunch five of us turned in our Icelandic Culture papers - yay for being done with one class already). Around 3pm every kitchen was in use until after midnight. Everyone really got into the Thanksgiving spirit. I could feel it all around me. I don´t even know how many dishes we made. Three tables full and enough to feed 48ish people plus leftovers still. People started to show up around 7 for dinner, but we weren´t ready. All I saw for a good hour was a whirlwind of food and chiefs finishing up their masterpieces. I don´t know how many times I ran up and down stairs, but it was totally worth every ounce of effort put in. The dinner was a success. I have never been so satisfied and content after completing a task before. Sitting with a view of each table and our quests eating the traditional American Thanksgiving meal we had worked SO HARD to prepare and a plate full of my own food, was a reward worth a million dollars. I couldn´t stop smiling, we had pulled it off. (if you know me at all you know how bad I am at planning parties - yes, this was a big accomplishment for me. ha). Everyone I talked to enjoyed the food and now want to celebrate Thanksgiving every year. I didn´t get to bed till after 1 am with all of the cleaning that had to be done, but I slept well. I will cherish this day for the rest of my life.
Nov 27th: I woke up full and to it snowing outside! What a great way to end Thanksgiving by bringing in the Christmas season :) All that was left was a little cleaning and moving the tables and chairs back to second floor. That morning/afternoon I spent outside with friends playing in the snow and on the ice. I made my first snow angel on the ice, it felt appropriate since I´m in Iceland. For dinner the cooks all got together to eat some leftovers. I know there is still food left. Can you say 100% true Thanksgiving? ha.

Amidst the Thanksgiving rush my life was slowly crumbling around me. I´m not a fan of bad news (giving or receiving) and when it comes out of no where it is so easy to close up. I guess you could say I am thankful that Thanksgiving was during this week so I´ve been able to distract myself from thinking about life. But today I will allow myself to slow down and examine life. At the moment I have more questions then answers. Like will it now be a tradition for my Thanksgiving week to be full of worry and confusion? Because two years in a row is enough for my pessimistic personality to place these events in connection with each other. There are just too many similarities for my mind to not come to that conclusion. Why, why, why? Why do my life lessons come through suffering? Can´t I learn the easy way for once? The ironic thing is I have been praying for my life to be changed here, to be broken, to experience God in a new way. Watch out for what you pray for. For over a month I have been going to a bible study at the Garman´s house and we have been going through 1 Peter. A perfect book about the suffering that happens in the world because we live in sin-filled world. Suffering is going to come no matter what, what really matters is where we place our faith, our trust, our hope. Nothing happens without a reason. I met the Garman´s because God knew I´d need to hear the truth of 1 Peter before and after last Tuesday. I have friends here that care and listen because God knew I´d need human comfort in Iceland. I may be back to where I was one year ago with different circumstances. But its a place where I have to fully rely on God with each breath I take, I wouldn´t be able to get out of bed without his strength. That´s a place of beauty, it really is. Beautifully broken.

Now I have a request of you friends. Please pray for my family (and me while you are at it). This is a crack in the road, a gap in the bridge, or the building blocks of a beautiful castle. I´m willing to share the details, I just don´t feel the need to vent details to the blog world. I always welcome ears to hear and a hug (even if its via the Internet). Bless friends.