Yakity Yak the Parkers Talk Back: Kathmandu's 2nd Annual Fall Festival 2010

Thankfully the weather in Nepal is pretty mild compared to some places in the world and it follows the same change of season pattern as America so, when it feels like fall in America it kind of starts to feel like fall in Nepal which is nice. Even though our fall season here only lasts a few weeks we are thankful for the milder temperatures after a very hot and rainy summer. Living in the city though we don't see much of the changing and falling of leaves (which I LOVE...growing up in the north east we had some of the most beautiful falls!) and Nepal doesn't celebrate fall the same way we do in America. Here, unfortunately, we don't have the fall foods, the fall scented candles, the fall decor or the fall themed goodies that are so amazing and abundant in America. If we want those things we have to try really hard to make them, have them sent from America or search all over Kathmandu for things that make our home feel like fall! Sometimes in having to work at something it makes it more special and more fun and enjoyable. We are so blessed to have some amazing American friends here in Nepal to celebrate fun American cultural stuff with. Last year we had an amazing fall festival at our friends house and this year we were able to host the wonderful party at our home. We had over 40 people there (including kids). Everyone brought some food, desserts and drinks! We had chili with all the toppings including homemade sour cream (we can't buy sour cream here), veggies with ranch dip, homemade salsa and guacamole, homemade pita chips, pumpkin cupcakes (made from fresh pureed pumpkin because we can't get the canned here), chocolate cake, homemade peanut butter caramel popcorn, caramel apples (with caramel made from sweetened condensed milk), homemade cornbread, homemade apple scones shaped and frosted like candy corn, homemade brownies and caramel chocolate bars, homemade hot chocolate, homemade hot apple cider, coffee, tea, soda, etc! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!!! You can see that I wrote homemade a lot in this post...that is because almost all of it was! For those of you who are about to move overseas or who live overseas now and are missing the "comfort foods of America"...be encouraged! There are so many things that you can do to make things feel and taste like "home"...it may take a lot longer but sometimes it is totally worth it...especially when everyone is contributing! We also played some fall games like bobbing for apples, pin the stem on the pumpkin, and CORN HOLE! If you have never played corn hole (I hadn't heard of it until last year) then you should totally try it! We had a tournament again and it proved to be tons of fun again this year! We had a wonderful fall festival here and I am so thankful. Fall is definitely my favorite season and I am so very thankful for friends here to enjoy it with when we can't be in America to celebrate. We are blessed!