love and be loved

The past month has been a whirlwind of adventures. With so many people in and out of our home and so much planning for our holiday excursions, I've found myself abandoning my lonely little journal...and all of you in the blogging universe. But now, in the solitude of my kitchen on a lazy Sunday morning, I've found the time and energy to reconnect.

Here's a recap of the past month:

Rose stayed with us for a little over two weeks, and I must admit, we were sad to see her go. She taught us new Do It Yourself skills, jammed on the guitar every night, made delicious food from recipes she learned throughout her travels, and truly embodied the idea of community as she shared everything she had and let us give back in return. She filled our home with a vibrant creative energy that still lingers in her absence.

A week and a half into Rose's visit, we opened our home up to two more visitors: Amylin from Turkey and her boyfriend Dominic from New Zealand. They hitch-hiked down to the south of Spain in hopes of catching a boat to the Caribbean. Two days after they arrived, our friend Bianca took a bus to our place to visit for the weekend. That meant seven people in one tiny apartment. So we did the only thing we could do in this situation: we made tons of food for everyone and drank a ton of wine!

 eating a traditional Turkish dinner with our guests

 Amylin and Dominic

saying what we are thankful for
 

The last picture was taken on Thanksgiving day. Amongst the chaos of entertaining a bunch of guests, there was peace and familiarity in having so many people there to celebrate the day with. The day after Thanksgiving we had a huge celebration at our friends' apartment here in La Linea. In addition to over 20 Americans, we had friends from Turkey, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, France, Italy and Spain come to celebrate . Way too much food, way too much to drink and an overdose of laughter...it was the closest thing we could have found to home.

 jammin' to some music and preparing our Thanksgiving day food

 Zach slicing the ham for his ham wrapped dates

 my banana date nut bread in process!

 Hill's appetizer plate

 my bread! the finished product

 waiting for the turkey to cook

 Caitlyn, the hostess, preparing her delicious food

 checking the recipe!

 almost ready!

 Nate and Kylie showing off the turkey like proud parents

 the best part: wine and desserts

 chowing down! we had way too much food and beautiful people to share it with

 

drinks and conversation

The day after Thanksgiving, Dominic and Amylin left our place for new adventures, Bianca went back home to La Roda, and Rose made her way over to Algeciras to hitch a boat to Africa.

 Rose, me and Bianca

 good luck on the road!

 Rose and Zach sharing some love

 digging in on some Thanksgiving leftovers

 saying goodbye

Through the chaos and unpredictable circumstances this month has offered, I've learned more than I could have ever imagined about the beauty in sharing with others. Give and receive. Then you will find true happiness. I'm a recent member of couchsurfing.org, which I fully support and believe in 100%. A few days after our nest emptied, we hosted four girls from Poland for a night. What a perfect way to share your culture and learn about others in return! For an idea of how the couchsurfing organization works, you can check out my page here.