A Little Background
There are two special days during the year where Stef and I host a gathering of many wonderful people. They are:
- Thanksgiving - We started this annual event when we moved to Costa Rica to celebrate the visit of our great friends from Tennessee - Bob & Carol. It usually turns out to be a good time for everyone who attends.
- St. Patrick's Day - This is the celebration of the day Stef and I actually met face to face. For years we have had many parties celebrating this day. In fact, we have had as many as 200 people attend the event at our home in Nashville. This event is getting to be a pretty big one here at our home in Costa Rica.
When we built our home here in Atenas, we wanted to make sure that it would be a welcome and pleasant place for our friends to visit. In addition, we wanted to make sure that there was enough room for many people to have a good time. After hosting these events for the past few years, we really feel that we met our objectives.
Thanksgiving 2012 - Our 4th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration
All the tables and chairs were delivered the afternoon before the event and Pete was up early the next morning to start setting up the tables and then the girls took care of the rest. The red vehicle in the background is Ana Cecilia's Shuttle Service that brought all the people up to the house from the road where they parked their cars - As you can see, there is some planning that goes into having an event like this.
The Big Event began around 2:00 PM and people started arriving right on time. Within an hour, just about everyone was there. Look at the crowd of smiling faces:
Our neighbor Don and Ray with his CRWIFI guys who are instrumental in making sure we always have the internet up and running.
Ursula chatting with Loek and his lovely friend.
Our neighbors and friends Peter and Nim
Stef chatting with . - Do you think she is plotting against me? :-)
Dona and Mary turning around to show us their pretty smiles.
Roxi chatting with our friend who just became her new friend - Ron
Our wonderful Attorney Pablo and his close friend Valeria
This is our dear friend Mercedes
Yours truly with the "Sisters in Transition" Judy and Roxi who recently moved to Atenas from Portland, Oregon.
Me and my very Best Friend and Beloved Wife - My Stephanie
Dona and Bob from Ohio who have just finished traveling around Europe, but wanted to come back and enjoy Atenas again.
And, there is more..
And boy, did they bring the food!!! Take a look at this..
We had four 6' long tables set up for the food and they were all full from one end to the other. - You name it and it was there.
There were recipes from many parts of the world including some great new dishes from our new neighbors and friends from Italy - Look to your left in the big tray. Mmmmm very good!!
It was unbelievable how much great food everyone brought. This is probably the best food that many of us have ever eaten for Thanksgiving Dinner - Thank you Everyone!!!
And, last but certainly not least - The assortment of many tasty desserts where we had put them on our dining room table to make sure they were protected from many watering tongues.
Now, we cannot forget to mention some of the other people beside me who helped put this event together.
Stef, who worked her butt off on the food section of the agenda and our girl Elieth, who ended up spending a total of 12 hours today in getting things ready and the final clean-up. Camera shy were Liz who worked together with Elieth, Ana Cecilia - who handled the Shuttle Service in her usual efficient manner and Ana CC's brother Gerald who made sure the vehicles were taken care of. - Thanks to all of you!!
The event went on until about 7:00 PM - That night and the days after we got many emails from people to let us know how much they enjoyed the festivities. However, all we did was to supply the tables & chairs and a place to have the event - We want everybody to know that it was them that made this Thanksgiving another successful event
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!!!!
