the gift of thanksgivingkah

tonight after the final program for our guests from israel and lithuania, the girls and i took monika to ralph's so she could stock up on american cookies (can you guess how many packs of oreos we bought?), candy (sour patch worms, twizzlers, jelly bellys, pop rocks, skittles and hershey bars) and other bad-for-you-but-taste-so-fucking-good snacks (cheez-its, cheetohs, lucky charms). 
when we checked out, our guy asked us if we were having a party, and the girls thought that was so funny.  small pleasures.

when morgan and sara came home from wty several weeks ago asking if we could participate in this twinning program and host a foreign exchange student. they were really excited, and half asleep, i agreed to it not really sure what i was getting us into.

days before monika, and friends, arrived, i still really didn't know how this was going to go down in our new world. would this be a total disruption? chaotic? or a nice distraction? frankly, it was none of those things. monika changed the way we are approaching this holiday season. with new eyes. we are doing it all new. not even trying to make things different because they just are. her visit these past 10 days have been warm, and sweet, educational for us, fun, enlightening, but most importantly, we feel like we gained new friendship, and bonded with a sister. all things we are grateful for. because of the language difference, i'm not sure she understands just how thankful the cooper girls are for her. 

heading now into the new week. lunches made. practices for both morgan and sara tomorrow.  alarm clock is set, and going to workout at 5:30a at CW in the a.m.