Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday night it was a co-worker's birthday so we ended up grilling outside...and by "we" I mean that I just showed up and ate while other people did all the work. Although Josh and I did run by the chow hall to pick up onions and tomatoes to put on the grill. So we ate grilled chicken that was soooo juicy, steak, Iraqi flavored rice, some other iraqi food I couldn't identify, birthday cake, and these yummy iraqi mini-desserts. The food was pretty good but the desserts were awesome!

Yesterday we had lasagna for lunch..it's my favorite food here! Then at 5pm my co-workers and I headed to the big chow hall to eat and then on to the USO (United Service Organization) event that they put on to entertain the troops for Thanksgiving. I got my picture taken with Wilmer Valerrama! If you don't know him, he's on "That 70's Show" and he dated Lindsay Lohan. And of course they had this scantily clad model for the guys to take pictures with...No thank you. They also had a comedian who I had never heard of - Russell Peters.

On Saturday there is a 5K so I have been training. Yesterday I ran it in 28 minutes. That's not too bad for me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! It's so weird/sad/cool to be here for Thanksgiving. I have to stop myself from thinking about what I would be doing back in Atlanta for the holiday b/c then I want to start crying. But luckily my parents are in Florida for the long weekend at our beach condo and my sister is in Jackson Hole, Wy so I am not missing family time exactly. People do seem to be in a happy mood here and they totally decked out the chow hall in decorations for lunch today. Although I'm not sure the chow hall crew (third country nationals...mostly from Pakistan) know what American Thanksgiving decorations are. There was a giant styrofoam elephant and I giant styrofoam duck. Hmm, maybe they were going for a Turkey with the duck but I have no idea what the elephant is supposed to be. Oh well, I appreciate the effort. For lunch, I had ham, sweet potatoes (not any marshmallow creme though), green beans, mac and cheese, eggnog, and pecan pie that I heated up and then put vanilla ice cream on. The pie was sooooooooooooooo good! I can't wait to go back tonight and have more! And since it's Thanksgiving, I don't even have to feel guilty! I hope everyone who reads this is having a wonderful thanksgiving too. I miss you all!

Oh, fyi, I love rice krispy treats. Today is is about 70 degrees out and not a cloud in the sky...it is perfect.