Thanksgiving in Qatar

Micah and I have spent the last 3 and now 4 Thanksgivings out of the United States.  Our last 3 were spent in Saudi with our friends sharing the cooking duties and spending the evening together laughing, watching the Macy's parade and some football.  I really came to enjoy our Thanksgivings with our friends.  This year with Thanksgiving approaching I had no idea what we would do to celebrate the holiday.  A couple weeks before I received an email about a Thanksgiving dinner for the US troops deployed here in Doha.  We were asked to cook lots of food and get together to serve our troops who serve us year round.  I was excited to have such a wonderful opportunity and to have some form of a plan.

Actual Thanksgiving day, Micah had to work and I spent all day cooking mashed potatoes and green bean casseroles for our Friday lunch.  That night we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of KFC.  Oops! I had no desire to try to cook a Thanksgiving meal just for me and Micah.

Friday came and we loaded up all the food and beverages and headed to another, larger compound, to have our dinner.  I was amazed at the amount of people there and the amount of wonderful home cooked food.  Before we got started eating there were a couple of speeches made by the head military guy (sorry, I didn't hear what his station exactly was) thanking us, and from an Expat thanking them!

The amount of food was truly incredible and extremely good!  I heard some guys in line saying "Wow, this is real home cooked food!!"  There were two buffet type areas set up like the one below plus a large dessert table.

We sat at a table with a few military people and were fascinated to learn things about Doha from their point of view.  One of the guys even told me he would rather be back in Iraq because the job here is so boring!  I can't imagine wanting that type of excitement but I guess thats why they are military and I am not.  I asked another one of the guys how he was liking Doha to which he exclaimed "After this meal, its amazing!"  Haha.  It was such a great experience and a wonderful way to spend Thanksgiving.