So, it is not a Mexican holiday, but the orphanage celebrates Thanksgiving each year, as it is a day to give thanks to God.  The Sunday before, we were late to church in San Diego and missed the "frozen turkey bowling"... our kids were so bummed!  But the church was nice enough to donate the turkeys for the orphanage's dinner.  There were other donations so that Sara could take the lead in preparing a feast!   Because it was not officially a holiday, the Mexican kids had school, and so did the Landes kids! (They were not thrilled but dinner wasn't til 6!)  But they finished quickly and we were able to do some other fun things during the day.

Gabe and Seth taught Josiah and Sam (Seth's daughter) how to cook a turkey...

Later, we took Jose out to buy him a pair of shoes.  Random thing... whenever we get in the van, all of our kids pull out a library book to read. It's just what they do.  As we drove down the road, I turned around, and saw this:

Apparently, Jose gave in to the peer pressure and picked up a library book from the floor to look at! :)

We checked at Wal-mart, but the selection was terrible!  We found another store, but the shoes were TOO expensive. So we just bought him lunch and we will buy shoes in the States to take back to him. But I think he still enjoyed the time out with us. (Plus by having pizza for lunch before our big feast, we kept up the American tradition of eating too much on this holiday!) 

Thanks to FaceTime, we were able to talk to both sets of our parents in Ohio. Later, the boys did get to watch a little football at Seth's house, while the girls and I did some nails!

Finally, the time was here! All the kids from Rosarito were brought to Soler and we had a feast!  It was so fun!  I love when all the kids and staff are together... there is such joy!  

It was a unique Thanksgiving for us... different than any other year in my life. I missed our families but it was wonderful to celebrate here, as this also feels like family now.  Thankful.