A Whole Lot of Thanks

Well, my favorite holiday just passed last weekend and the countdown to Christmas has begun in earnest. I have to hear at least fifteen times a day Jayden's Santa wish list. "I want a Spiderman suit. With a mask. And gloves. Does Spiderman have ears Mommy? Where are they? And a remote-control helicopter. And a bicycle." A strange list but it never varies. It's always the same three items.

We kicked off Thanksgiving on the Sunday before the actual day by baking about 100 mini pumpkin pies for the boys to take to school. In my effort to make them appreciate their American heritage, I try to force it on their classmates, as well. If their classmates say, "Wow! Pumpkin Pies! That's so cool! I wish I could celebrate Thanksgiving." that has much more impact than anything I can do or say to try to convince them it's not such a bad thing to be an American. "Forget about Iraq, boys, we get to eat pumpkin pie!"

Then, on Wednesday night the Language Center held a Thanksgiving activity which I hosted in which we made hot, spiced apple cider (juice) and yes, more mini pumpkin pies. I found a great little 5- minute video on the History Channel website which gave a really fantastic overview of the holiday. I showed it to the students (there were about 70 who showed up) while the pies were baking and I was able to successfully watch it without weeping (barely). I almost lost it when they showed the part with the multiple generations sitting around the table passing platters laden with goodies but I blocked the tears with the thought, "Yes, but look at those fools - they're freezing their asses off! Ha! Look at the sweaters on them. Me? I'm here in shorts and a T-shirt!" Yes, you are free to remind me of this post when I'm whining about melting into a wee puddle of sweat come next May. Or April.

On Friday, Josh's school had a Thanksgiving activity which Jason, Jay, and I attended. Someone got a turkey, the teacher I presume, and it was all cooked and sliced and stuffed into a basket - complete with it's roasted turkey gobbler head poking out of the top of the pile of meat. It was a potluck affair and I brought, yes, more pumpkin pies. Other than the turkey, there wasn't much Thanksgiving-y about the fare the other potluckers brought. Pizza Hut Pizza, roasted sausages, fried dumplings, steamed cabbage...No mashed potatoes or gravy or anything like that. It was fun to see Josh at school and see some of the other parents, though. Josh swore he didn't want us to come but he didn't seem too displeased to see us when we arrived.

Our own Turkey Day had to wait until Saturday, of course. Jason had reserved a free-range chicken from the market on Friday and when he picked it up and brought it back Saturday morning freshly (and I mean freshly) dead I realized that in my explicit chicken ordering instructions I had overlooked at least one or two key things. For example, when I asked that the feet be removed I should have specified "at the knee joint" and not somewhere around the poor thing's shins. And, when I said,"remove the head" I should have included "and neck" along with it. It even had the "pre-eggs" still in its abdomen which gave an interesting "scrambled egg" quality to the stuffing. Interesting to note though, just how much stuffing you can cram into the ass of a teeny free-range chicken with the right tools and a whole lot of determination.

In order to supplement our teeny chicken, Jason went out on a mission to get a Beijing roast duck from the most famous restaurant in Taichung. He queued for over an hour to get that duck. So, by the time he returned, the chicken and everything else had been placed in a warming pattern and the boys were chewing on their own limbs in anticipation of the big meal.

I resisted the almost overwheming urge to scold when Jason finally arrived home (in the spirit of the day) and we sat down to enjoy our feast. We put up the Christmas tree on Sunday and gradually decorated it over the next few days as time permitted.

The holidays never really feel like the holidays here but we are blessed with good friends and family in Taiwan and that's what really counts, right?