Thankfulness
Gan en jie kuai le Happy Thanksgiving. Not a new word, but a review from last year.
This year, Thanksgiving certainly has not turned out in many ways that we would have hoped. For starters, Randy remains in Beijing, working. He will be back here this weekend, but it meant that sharing Thanksgiving with him meant video-conferencing with him and telling him about our Thanksgiving Dinner.
We are thankful that Randy could not be with us because he actually has a job. Had he stayed much longer with his former employer (the one that brought us here in the first place), he would certainly by now be out of work and possibly stranded in China. We must remember to be thankful that Randy is employed.
For a over a month I've been stocking up on ingredients to make perfect pumpkin pies again this year, believing that we would have some sort of plans to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with a large group again, as we had last year. These plans never materialized for us with Randy remaining in Beijing. Now I have half a dozen cans of pumpkin, as well as several cans of evaporated milk sitting in my pantry.
We are thankful that Randy can be home this weekend, and we can enjoy the yet-to-be-made pies together.
It always seemed so impersonal to me when I would hear of people that would go out to a restaurant for Thanksgiving Dinner. It isn't my first choice of how to spend Thanksgiving, but this year we went to the Thanksgiving buffet at the Kempinski with our friends the Kruses.
We are thankful that we were still able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with friends that also understand the difficulty of being so far away from family and old friends on these holidays.
We didn't wallow too much in our self-pity of not having the Thanksgiving exactly the way we want it because this year we are especially thankful for the wonderful gift of Brigid. Her arrival makes this Thanksgiving a particularly wonderful Thanksgiving. Despite all the other obstacles to our joyful thankfulness this year, she makes it extremely easy to Thank God for our blessings.
And for those needing help finding the words to express thankfulness this year, Ann Rodgers has a great piece in the Post-Gazette about the many ways to say grace.
Happy Thanksgiving. We miss you, and you know who you are.
This year, Thanksgiving certainly has not turned out in many ways that we would have hoped. For starters, Randy remains in Beijing, working. He will be back here this weekend, but it meant that sharing Thanksgiving with him meant video-conferencing with him and telling him about our Thanksgiving Dinner.
We are thankful that Randy could not be with us because he actually has a job. Had he stayed much longer with his former employer (the one that brought us here in the first place), he would certainly by now be out of work and possibly stranded in China. We must remember to be thankful that Randy is employed.
For a over a month I've been stocking up on ingredients to make perfect pumpkin pies again this year, believing that we would have some sort of plans to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with a large group again, as we had last year. These plans never materialized for us with Randy remaining in Beijing. Now I have half a dozen cans of pumpkin, as well as several cans of evaporated milk sitting in my pantry.
We are thankful that Randy can be home this weekend, and we can enjoy the yet-to-be-made pies together.
It always seemed so impersonal to me when I would hear of people that would go out to a restaurant for Thanksgiving Dinner. It isn't my first choice of how to spend Thanksgiving, but this year we went to the Thanksgiving buffet at the Kempinski with our friends the Kruses.
We are thankful that we were still able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with friends that also understand the difficulty of being so far away from family and old friends on these holidays.
We didn't wallow too much in our self-pity of not having the Thanksgiving exactly the way we want it because this year we are especially thankful for the wonderful gift of Brigid. Her arrival makes this Thanksgiving a particularly wonderful Thanksgiving. Despite all the other obstacles to our joyful thankfulness this year, she makes it extremely easy to Thank God for our blessings.
And for those needing help finding the words to express thankfulness this year, Ann Rodgers has a great piece in the Post-Gazette about the many ways to say grace.
Happy Thanksgiving. We miss you, and you know who you are.
Comments
Thank you SOOOO much for the camera! Now I have no reason for slacking off on sending pictures to you guys. WE LOVE YOU!!!!