Thanksgiving in Shenzhen

     The highlight of our Thanksgiving was Terry and I each hearing words of gratitude from Chinese people, who knew this was an American holiday.  What a refreshing approach to this holiday:  saying thank you to someone for what you appreciate about them.    One of the young associates in Terry's office sent him a special email for Thanksgiving:  "I would like to thank you for all your self-giving sharing of your knowledge and experience. You are really a good teacher!! ~_~ Thank you so much."  This afternoon when I saw a Chinese friend, she said, "This is Thanksgiving.  I want to say thank you because I'm glad you are my friend.  So...are you going to a party tonight?"

     No, sorry to say that the Thanksgiving celebration in our household was a little lame!  It didn't seem like a holiday, since it was a work and school day as usual here.  We've always celebrated Thanksgiving with extended family, so that part was missing completely.  And 70º temps and palm trees don't exactly bring on thoughts of "Over the river and through the woods..."

     I did, however, make a special trip after school down Wanghai Road to the expat butcher shop to get some chicken for our dinner.  While there, I spotted three turkeys in the freezer case, two Jennie-O and one Norbest.  How about that?  Minnesota turkeys made it all the way to Shenzhen, China, for around $3/lb.

     We had a package of stuffing, dried cranberries and a can of pureed pumpkin stashed in our pantry after 

Terry's trip home in October.  Thanksgiving dinner tonight was stuffing with cranberries and braised chicken, baked sweet potatoes, baby bok choy with oyster sauce, and pumpkin custard for dessert.  Pretty good, all considering, I thought.  "Not the same," Leah lamented.  No, indeed.  It's the grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles around the groaning board, more than what's on the board, that's most missed.
     But none of us spent much time dwelling on that today.  We are feeling very grateful for the many kindnesses and opportunities that we're experiencing in China and for all the support from family and friends back in the U.S.