Love From Home

Rusty and I have been so blessed to receive many cards and care packages since we arrived. It's been hard to feel far from home when we're constantly reminded of the many family and friends who have shown their love by trekking to the post office with envelopes and heavy, expensive boxes to ship us those American luxuries that we miss.
Perhaps the item that I miss most is my coffee creamer. If you've ever had coffee with me, you know I like to dilute it with vanilla creamer and lots of Splenda. While the grocery stores here have a large selection of various creams, there's just nothing like the coffee creamers we have at home. However, mom came through with a precious box of Inernational Delight vanilla creamers that I ration strictly and drink with pleasure. Her box also contained each of our favorite macaroni and cheese's, green chiles, enchilada sauce, and a few other favorites.
Another thing we've missed are ziploc bags. It's shocking that we have whole aisles devoted to them, but you just can't find a decent ziploc in the Uk. They are these flimsy little baggies with twist ties or sticky, resealable tops...ugh! But again, Tiffany was incredibly thoughtful and sent some baggies my way, along with some canned pumpkin in time for Thanksgiving. When I was preparing for my annual Thanksgiving baking, I was shocked to find that canned pumpkin is not sold in grocery stores. When I asked people how they make pumpkin baked goods, they gave me a "DUH" look and said, "with real pumpkins!" (although we've found that most of them have never tasted a home-baked pumpkin anything). However, using fresh pumpkin means you have to buy and bake it in season, which I missed. But, never fear, I have now received several cans of pumpkin in the mail, my pumpkin rolls were a hit at Thanksgiving with the Americans from our church, and I'm good to go for the holiday season.
All in all, we're having fun searching for those favorite things we missed and trying out all the things that are new, but it sure is wonderful to get those American treasures from Her Majesty's Royal Mail.
Attached are some pictures of our most recent treasure box from Randy and Barbara...they sent a whole load of holiday goodies (no red and green M&M's in Scotland), and some hard to find cooking ingredients (chocolate chips in a bag large enough to make cookies with, green chiles, Mexican spices, and more.
Thanks everyone!