Pilgrims and Indians

The week of Thanksgiving, our poor kids were introduced to the all American holiday of Thanksgiving by being ambushed with a confusing assortment of turkey, pilgrim, and Indian related activities. Apart from the classic hand turkey, they were introduced to this glorious manifestation of American culture with toilet paper roll Mayflowers, pilgrim and Indian three-legged races, and adorable Pilgrim hats.

Our Thanksgiving celebration consisted of ordering a veritable feast of Chinese food from our local restaurant. We were able to gain a sense of privacy and avoid omnipresent clouds of cigarette smoke by eating in the back room, where we had a lovely session of giving gratitude before stuffing ourselves.

We have visited this local restaurant at least every other week since arriving here. At first, I felt terrible for the lady who runs the place for having to deal with orders comprised of gestures and broken Mandarin. But I think she actually started to get a little fond of us. After the first few dumpling runs, she pointed us to the dishes of food that she knew we liked, so that we didn't have to search the entire menu. We had never had any actual conversation with her, but I felt a little sad at leaving our dependable friend as Thanksgiving constituted our final supper at our little restaurant. She's a wonderful lady.

In order to include some semblance of a traditional Thanksgiving meal, I baked a pumpkin pie in spite of all the difficulties baking a pie in a Chinese toaster oven using somewhat unorthodox ingredients posed. It wasn't Aunt Susie's pumpkin pie, but I will say it was pretty dang good.

We ended our evening by kicking off the Christmas season with The Holiday, pumpkin pie, and Christmas chain assemblage. It was a Thanksgiving to be remembered.