Happy Thanksgiving from the Philippines!

The Philippines LOVE to take holidays. Our favorite, little, next door neighbor, Nini, is constantly home from school for "holiday". However, Thanksgiving is one holiday that they don't celebrate :/ (Which is understandable. Why would they need to celebrate pilgrims coming to the 'New World'?)

It wasn't until about noon, that we got on Facebook and everyone was wishing us "Happy Thanksgiving" that we realized, "Oh yeah, its Thanksgiving today". We were just gonna shrug our shoulders and say, "Oh well". But then Sam turned on some Christmas music and we started to get a little homesick. Then all of a sudden, Allison got up and said, "We're not gonna do this. We're gonna celebrate Thanksgiving." 

So we decided the first thing we should start on is the pie (I mean, whats Thanksgiving without Pumpkin Pie, right?) However, there are no pumpkins here. To some this would be a major downfall, but not to the Hanaway sisters. 

It didn't take long for the pie to
disappear.

We had a Kalabasa (which is a squash-like vegetable as shown in the picture above) at our house so we pressure cooked that and ran it through the blender. Then we added evaporated milk, brown sugar, and of course, the cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice. We whipped it all together and poured it over a graham cracker crust. (Another downfall was that we didn't have a pie plate. So we just used a regular baking pan) 

After we had put the pie in the oven, we realized that we didn't have any whipped cream for it. So we used this little box of all purpose cream that they sell here and added some condensed milk and then put it in the freezer. It came out more like a creamy frosting than whipped cream but it still tasted amazing. 

Then Allison went on a cooking rampage. Dirtying almost every dish in the house to put together a Thanksgiving Dinner. 

Nini poses next to our dinner.

We had mashed potatoes, green beans, corn,  vege-meat with a cashew gravy, rolls, and cashew cheese. It was AMAZING. 

Vege-Meat with Cashew Gravy

After the dinner, we were so full that we made ourselves go for a 2 mile walk around the block. We came back and cleaned up our mess, then sat down to try our Pumpkin pie "creation". It tasted like the real thing! We could barely tell the difference. 

Mashed potatoes are good in any
country.

When we realized it was edible, we decided to see if our fellow missionaries wanted to try some. They really liked it….so much in fact, that it is now gone. Andrew had commented that " It didn't feel like Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie". So we were excited that we were able to bring a little Thanksgiving to the other missionaries. 

Though Nini wasn't around when
the meal was cooked...or eaten...

We made sure to wake up early this morning (6ish) to Skype our family back home and share their Thanksgiving holiday with them.

...she did stop by when we brought
the camera out. Which is her favorite
part anyways. ;)

We have SOO much to give thanks for this year. We're so thankful that we were able to come to the Philippines as missionaries. We are SOOO thankful for all the donations and support we've received from everyone back home. We are very thankful for the internet and Facebook and Skype, they definitely help make the 7,000 miles between us and our loved ones feel so much shorter. We are thankful for our AMAZING family and friends back home and for our new missionary family here. We are thankful for our health and for all the knowledge that we have to be shared with the people here. We have been very blessed this last year!

We hope everyone else enjoyed their holiday and was able to reflect on all the blessings they've received in the past year. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! Till next time…

~Me and Her