Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Weekend has been busy but really good. Thursday we had a half day of school - since Thanksgiving is not an international holiday we don't have the whole day off. We work a half day on Thursday and have off on Friday.

Thursday evening we went to our next door neighbors - the family we often get together with. They had a couple of other families over and together we remembered the first Thanksgiving and sang some hymns (They have a piano). It was a really special time to spend Thanksgiving evening with people that are like family to me here. And the pie afterwards were really good. :)

Friday, my roommates and I went to Beijing for the day to do some shopping and run some errands. Oh my, the traffic in the city just keeps getting worse. However, I'm pretty sure that the markets and IKEA in Beijing were not as crowded as the stores in America on Friday. :)

Yesterday we had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner here. We started cooking very early in the morning... by 7:00 we had peeled all the potatoes, cooked the broccoli for the casserole, prepared the sauce for the stuffing, cut up the sweet potatoes, and made three pie crusts. Dani Beth, Molly, and I all have different specialites in the kitchen and we worked really well together. Everyone came about 2:30 (we had about 17 people) and we all ate a lot of food and hung out the rest of the day. We do not have a table to seat 17 people so we usually have a buffet and then eat in the living room (well, it's all one room). It was great to reconnect with old friends and meet some new ones.

So what am I thankful for?

- the friends I've been blessed with over the years - some near and some far away...

- a supportive and loving family
- that I have enough food to eat and a comfortable place to live. There are people within a half mile of me here that don't have these things.

- all the unique and special experiences I've had and things I've seen over the years here that have impacted me in some way.

- lots more...