Stealth holidays
So Thanksgiving has come and gone. It kind of snuck up on us out here. No ads for turkeys or cranberry sauce. No food drives for the impoverished. No travel advisories for the airports. While we were aware of the date, of course, it didn't have the feel of Thanksgiving. Back home we'd be inundated with all sorts of little visual and aural clues that the holiday was coming. Here it was business as usual. Yau Neih even had to work on Thursday. (Then again, so did my niece back in Illinois.) There is definitely a different rhythm to life here.Despite that, however, we had a big Thanksgiving bash. Well, I should say we attended a Thanksgiving bash. Marty and Karen, some fellow ex-pats here did the actual hosting. Eighteen people they had in their flat! They had a great spread--turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie. And then after dinner the adults sat and chatted while the kids ran amok. The only thing that kept it from being a perfect celebration was the fact that our families were all back in the States. And maybe the fact that the Macy's parade didn't start until 10 pm China time.
Well, now it's the Christmas season and China is still business as usual. But of course, if you have kids (or are young at heart) Christmas can never sneak up on you. I've already heard Christmas carols emanating from our shower and we're counting down the days until Yau Neih's mom and sister come to visit. I suppose I should get out and do some shopping....
posted by John @ 4:09 AM
<< Home