This past week we continued to put in time at school. Adan is still working hard with the girl's volleyball team and Pazi has been asked to help with some of the scenery for the school's Christmas program, The Nutcracker Suite. With such commotion, before we knew it Thanksgiving was upon us.Now, it is important to share that we celebrated Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday afternoon. Logistically it was the best idea considering we do not get time off for this American holiday. This gave us a few extra days to find all the necessary ingredients for our potluck dish. Each family was to bring one item to share with others.
We decided to sign up for bringing a dessert dish several weeks back. Because very few people have ovens here in China it seemed like a difficult task to bring anything initially. However, Adan got to thinking about his mother's delicious Pistachio Salad and thought it just might be doable. Sure enough, after consulting with her about the recipe, Adan and Pazi were able to locate all the ingredients.Diverse Celebration
Finally when the day of the dinner came it was more than we imagined. The feast we shared with friends and co-workers was enormous. The dishes showed a true multi-cultural flair as turkey sat next to fried wonton. In fact, Adan even ate most of his plate with chopsticks! We say most of the meal because mashed potatoes and gravy are hard to pick up with chopsticks.
After everyone had two or three servings of food, we had the honor of having first a Chinese guitarist play music for us. Then some of the QSI staff shared their talents with their traditional Thanksgiving tunes. Following this many of the staff requested Christmas carols so several people joined in to sing songs like "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."It was a very eventful day. We enjoyed the company and the great food. It made the thought of missing Thanksgiving at home a little more bearable, even if we did miss out on sweet potatoes and tamales!
This is what one of our plates looked like for Thanksgiving dinner.