It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving Week is already here. The time continues to fly by and my guess is that it will only go faster as we go along. I continue to work on my Sr. Couples book which continues to grow bigger and bigger. I found a great French cooking blog, chocolateandzuchinni.com. It is written in English and French. On the site she had pages of French cooking terms and food names translated into English. Also, there are conversions from cups to metric measurements and cups to weight measurements. In Europe they weigh their ingredients rather than use volume measurements. It’s really much more accurate and you don’t have to sift flour! I found a scale in our apartment and wondered what it was for until I got on the web site and remembered that they weigh ingredients here – someone obviously got into weighing their ingredients.
Tuesday after we finished at the office we needed to go to the grocery store (that comes often) so we decided to venture to the nearby town of Thoiry to a Migros grocery store. The grocery stores we usually shop at are called supermarches which have everything similar to our Super Walmarts in the states. After we finished at the grocery store we saw another large store called Leroy Merlin so we went inside to check it out. It was like a small Home Depot. We saw lots of things we have spent a lot of time looking for. Oh the joy of finding the place to buy what you need!
Wednesday was a day of getting ready for Thanksgiving. I had told Sister Murdock I would make dinner rolls for Thanksgiving and she said I could use her mixer. So Sister Murdock and I spent most of Wednesday cooking and baking together in her kitchen. She was making pumpkin pies with pumpkin she brought from the states. Here you can buy it at the American Store for only $9.00 a can. Meanwhile I was making roles.
I made enough rolls for the Sr. Couples, 13 people, and for our Zone of 20 missionaries. That was a lot of rolls - over a hundred. And of course, I had to make some cinnamon rolls too. The memory is so delicious.
Whole turkeys are not generally seen in the grocery store so last year Sister Murdock ordered two turkeys ahead of time. When she got to the front to pay for them they were $150 each!
She still had one she didn't use last year that she had frozen but she was afraid it would have freezer burn and be dry. When I was at Carrefour (grocery store) in Segney I saw a fresh French turkey and told Sister Murdock about it. French turkeys are not as large or plump as US turkeys. It was only $30 so she went and got it. It was really moist and delicious. No more $150 turkeys!
Thanksgiving day was very nice and sunny. It was so fun to get together with the other Sr. Couples – The Murdocks, President and Sister Bonny (Stake President), Aseys, Chatterleys, Hansens, Betty the housekeeper and us. Everyone brought something for the dinner and it was so good. Just like at home.
The missionaries got together and cooked the turkey Sister Murdock had given them. They also made home made stuffing, mashed potatoes and all the rest of the dinner. They really are good cooks and enjoy cooking. Before the diner they played flag football and returned covered in mud. They held their dinner at the church. After the Sr. Couples dinner we visited for a long time then we hurried home in time to talk our children. They all had family to be with – we were glad for that.
At this Thanksgiving time we are grateful for so many things. First of all, our children and grandchildren. For the righteous lives they lead and their desires to follow the Savior and keep His commandments. For teaching their children the gospel and showing them how to live a righteous life by their example. As it says in 3 John verse 4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” We are grateful to be here in Switzerland and France serving a mission. To be a part of the great work of our Heavenly Father in bringing those who are prepared to the gospel. We are grateful for our Savior and his great love and sacrifice for us.
Friday it was back to the office to work on our assignments. It had turned very cold and then it started to rain and then turned to snow. We left the office early to try to avoid the heavy snow and very slick roads.
Driving home from the office
It snowed and snowed and snowed! When we awoke on Saturday we had over a foot of snow and it was still snowing! 
Thanksgiving Day - Thursday
Saturday Morning - a brief moment of sunshine
Sunday Morning
We park our car in an underground garage under our apartment. The ramp out is steep and not heated. Doug went down to check out the ramp and it was covered in ice and snow. There was a car trying to get out but the lady driving couldn’t get up the ramp. Doug and some others helped push her up the ramp. She finally made it. There was no salt nor a shovel to help clear the ramp. Needless to say we decided staying home was a good option. It snowed all day and they did not plow the roads. We decided to walk to the market to get a few things we needed. It was cold but fun to be out in the snow. There was a Stake High Priest Party on Saturday night but we were homebound - we couldn’t get up the ramp and the roads were terrible. The Aseys and the Chatterlys decided not to try the roads either. They came over and we had our own High Priest Party and watched a movie. We still couldn’t get out on Sunday so the Chatterleys picked us up and took us to the Geneva Ward. instead of going to Annecy. I thought I remembered President Murdock and the Doyles had told us it hardly ever snowed – well so far that isn't how it has been going.
It's great to read of your experiences, and we're thrilled that your experiences are different than ours. That's how it should be!!! I think I'll consider cinnamon rolls for tonight's treat -- your expertise in the kitchen must be a joy to those with you!!!
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