Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Thanksgiving - China Style!






Celebrating Thanksgiving in China is somewhat akin to celebrating Chinese New Year in Fayetteville...it's just a little hard when you're one of the only ones doing it! For Thanksgiving day, the girls had school and I had work and then we did celebrate Thanksgiving night and went out to Johnny Moos for burgers! On Friday we actually did have our official celebration - including Joseph's first official Thanksgiving as an 'almost' US citizen! The side effect of having a Chinese kitchen with an oven that doesn't even fit a cookie sheet is that literally you can't even cook a Thanksgiving dinner despite wanting to! So we had dinner catered...that's right we ordered a turkey, a ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans and pies! While we missed the smell of it all baking in the house - I must say it sure was nice not to fix anything! We had Joseph's previous foster family from Belgium over to celebrate..Gerard, Monique, Manon and Victor...along with two friends that have been in Shanghai the same time as us but are heading back to the States this month. Fayetteville or Shanghai...still a zillion reasons to be thankful this holiday season!
Saturday was the traditional day to decorate for Christmas! Very fun to see the excitement from all six of the 'kids' and especially Zoe, Abigail and Joseph! We had Joseph officially put the angel on top...the first time. After it fell off, then it was Abigail's turn and finally Zoe got the angel to stay! Hung our stockings on the staircase and watched 'Miracle on 34th Street'!
Sunday....18 years ago...one of the best things ever came into this world...and this weekend she became an official adult...wow how time flies! We had a wonderful day celebrating Kelly! Since we already had the big birthday barn bash back home with summer with none other than her best friend Katie Sue we opted for some smaller gifts on her birthday - a 1000 piece miniature puzzle and Phineas & Ferb Wii Game. As Megan asks...how old is the birthday girl turning - 8 or 18?!?! Her friend Missy (who sadly is headed back to Michagan at the end of this semester) came over for dinner & brought an ice cream cake...she knows us so well!





Also included a picture of our book characters...Fancy Nancy (Zoe's second year with this favorite character) and Eloise!

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