Nov. 24, 2016
10:45 pm
Beijing, China
Happy Turkey Day!
Are you all excited? I know for most of you, you haven’t eaten Thanksgiving dinner yet. Remember as you sit down to dinner tonight with your family to cherish the moment. Thank Abba for all of the blessings you have received. Enjoy the conversation and the laughter that you all share. Remind those around you of how much you love them. Unfortunately, I will not be sharing dinner with my family this evening. That’s a hard thing to come to terms with, even though it does seem a bit silly to be sad about dinner. But, again, I know that I’ll be thought of and I hope that my family realizes how much I love and miss them. (I’m FaceTimeing tomorrow morning, my time, to say hi to everyone).
So today was my Thanksgiving. Of course, no one in China, aside from expats, celebrates Thanksgiving. It’s not like Christmas or Halloween. But I do know a few expat places (like ch—ch) in Beijing that had Thanksgiving dinners for people to atrend. Unfortunately, because I work on Thursday evenings, I was unable to attend any of these big dinners. That being said, I did not want to miss Thanksgiving. So I asked Brian and Taylor if they wanted to do a small Thanksgiving dinner. Nothing too extravagant; I was content to just go for dinner somewhere and actually sit down together to eat. Because Taylor works so far away, she wasn’t able to join us. Although we missed her, Brian and I decided to still do dinner. When I was at work I heard that Laranda’s friends had ditched on their Thanksgiving plans, so I invited her to join us.
Because of our limited time and inability to actually cook anything, our dinner was not at all what one would usually see at the dinner table on this specific Thursday night. My Thanksgiving dinner this year consisted of rotisserie chicken, white rice, fried rice, and sponge cake. (By the way, the rotisserie was not actually hot when I got it. It was cooked, but I had to heat it up in the microwave when I got home.) Yep. No turkey or stuffing or pumpkin pie (oh how I miss you!). Still, though, we had fun. We shared great conversation and enjoyed our little mismatched dinner. We told a couple of stories about back home. Mostly, though, it was just nice to share each others’ company and not be alone for the holiday.
Afterwards, Laranda needed to head back to the train to get home. It was a little after 10 and the last train leaves at 10:23, so I walked her to the bus stop near our building. As you all know by now, the bus only takes about 5 minutes to get to the station. Unfortunately, there were absolutely no buses in sight. We stood there for a few minutes before I made the executive decision to walk to the station. Please understand, I’ve only walked from the subway closest to my apartment 3 times since I’ve moved here and only once at night. So we went about 1 block in the wrong direction and then turned around. We walked most of the way to the station, but the station is one south of the one I usually go to, where the train leaves at 10:23. I looked down at my phone when we were still a good 5 minutes’ walk away and it was already 10:20. Obviously, she was not going to make the train. So we turned around and headed back to my apartment. Guses what? I’m having another sleepover tonight.
Anyway, I thought I’d share a little bit about how my Thanksgiving went. Good luck with all your cooking and football watching. Enjoy this time together. Thank Abba for what you have. Also, take a moment to p—y for those less fortunate. P—y for those who have no dinner or family to share it with, P—y for those who do not have the blessings you have. And, if you wouldn’t mind, p—y for all of the people like me who do not get to spend this Thanksgiving with those they love and p—y that they feel the love and joy that you do this holiday. Finally, p—y for our country and those who serve and thank Abba for their sacrifices.
Bless,
Kristen
PS — Try not to die if you’re going Black Friday shopping tomorrow. I promise, that collector’s edition barbie doll or new grill master is not worth it, 😉
