At the end of my last post I said something along the lines of we didn't go anywhere the rest of that weekend because Daddy had duty. I totally forgot about Story Time. Saturday November 12th there was a special story time at the Yongsan Library with General Thurman and his wife. I have been told they do these special events from time to time as a way to get the community together and promote reading. The theme for this one was Thanksgiving. The morning started off with the General and some kids cutting a cake and then carving a turkey. Then they read a few books to the kids and everyone got to eat. They had a whole Thanksgiving dinner spread including turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, pies and even cake. It was a really nice morning. Laurie and Ben brought the girls and Mike's commander, Major Magee and his family were also there. We will definitely be going to the special story time events in the future.
General Thurman and his wife.
Cutting the cake, every kid there volunteered.
This boy looks so much like his father!!!
Giulianna and Rhyon met the General, he insisted on holding them.
Gotta get Avery in there too!
The week following Veterans Day weekend I don't recall doing anything really. Just pretty much routine with maybe a few play dates with friends and Giulianna's school schedule. There was one thing, we went to a tribute to Veterans concert at the Seoul American High School on post that Friday night. The concert was the 8th Army Band and the ROK Army Band. They had a few special guests that sang or played instruments as well. It was a great performance. I took videos of several of the songs but one in particular sticks out. The very last song was accompanied by what I would call a Korean violin. It is a very interesting sounding instrument. Its a long video and that's not even the whole song, but I hope you watch some of it and really enjoy!
The weekend of the 19th and 20th we stayed pretty low key. I went to a little Holiday Bazaar on post with Laurie and her mother in law Kathy on Saturday morning. The only thing I bought was a little poinsettia for the holidays, which I have almost killed already. That afternoon I went to Dongdaemun with a new friend of mine named Darla and her son Matthew. I did not take any pictures of Dongdaemun this time, but there are some in an earlier post if you missed them. While I was out with Darla, her hubby called and wanted her to get a babysitter so he could take her out somewhere as a surprise. So I gladly volunteered. When we got back to Hannam, Matthew came home with me which was a great surprise for Giulianna. She really plays nicely with him and he is a great kid! The next day was our typical Sunday, with a stop at the big commissary after church. We were hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house so we needed to get everything. I managed to find a 27.8lb turkey! Poor Mike had to haul "tom" and all the groceries up all stairs to our apartment. He earned his keep that day for sure!
On Tuesday that week, Giulianna's class had a Thanksgiving party. I don't know what I was thinking, I guess I wasn't thinking, but I didn't bring the camera! So her class sang a couple songs and I didn't get them. I did however, get a picture of the class in their turkey hats on my I Pod. It was a nice little lunch/snack. After school was over I had a bunch of errands to run, so Laurie took Rhyon home for me so he could get a nap and my life would be a little bit easier. In the midst of our errands Mike called an wanted to meet him for lunch, which was a delightful surprise.
Wednesday night Mike had overnight duty again. He left at 10pm and didn't get home until 4am, so I was on my own for turkey prep. I was up bright and early at 6:30am making stuffing and get "tom" in the pan. At 8am I woke Mike up so he could carry "tom" to Laurie's house where he would spend the day cooking. Thank God she lives 2 doors down, because dinner would not have been possible without her oven! Mike came back and went back to bed until about 11am. I did some other prep work and hung out with the kids. The thing we missed most about Thanksgiving in Korea was the Macy's Parade. It just wasn't the same without it. When Mike got up he gave the kids a bath and I got in about an hour nap before the chaos really ensued.
Our menu consisted of: Turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, buffalo wing dip, spinach artichoke dip, french onion dip, cheese and crackers, stuffed mushrooms, corn souffle, broccoli souffle, sweet potato souffle, baked apples, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole and kimchi. I figured we had to have kimchi since we were in Korea after all. Christina brought a ham as well, and Doug brought some beer and wine. We had plenty to eat. Everyone was told to just bring a desert. Christina brought pumpkin pie, Laurie brought an Eggnog Cheese Cake and the Kitson Family brought a Korean Cake. The Korean Cakes are very interesting in that they aren't really sweet cakes like Americans eat. They are really good though, and always very pretty. The one they brought had little pieces of fruit in it. Its hard to describe their cakes, but they are uniquely wonderful!
The whole group was 19 people. Our family of 4, The Hirsch Family of 4 plus Kathy, The Rauhala Family of 4 plus their friend Mark, The Kitson Family of 4 and Doug. It was a very full house. The kids had a great time. I don't think any of them really ate anything because they were so busy playing. The play room was destroyed! At one point they all found the dress up clothes and did a nice little fashion show for the adults. We played a nice game of Trivial Pursuit on the Wii, in which the ladies beat the men! Before we all knew it, it was way past the kids bed time so everyone got ready to go. There were plenty of leftovers to go around.
My perfect golden creation!
Time to cut "Tom"
The peanut gallery making sure he was doing it right!
Getting the food all lined up on the table.
Some decorations.
The kids table.
Rhyon out ate every one of the other kids, maybe even all of them combined!
Everybody Smile! That's one happy family!
The kids fashion show!
Korean Cake, Yum!
All our desert!
Christina serving up some pie!
After the kids were in bed, Laurie and Christina came back and did a little more clean up and then we played Phase 10 along with Doug and Mike. Doug won in the end, we were teasing him it was because he is half Korean! It was about 1am when everyone finally left and we totally crashed. It was a wonderful day. Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday and it was nice to spend it with our "close family" as Christina said. We have truly become a family away from our families back home, and there is nothing I am more thankful for than that!
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