Thanksgiving in Wuhan!!

I spent my Thanksgiving on a 5 hour bus trip to Wuhan the capital city in our province. There I reconnected with an old church camp friend of mine, Heather. I stayed in her apartment with her. When I arrived Stephen, Kelli's husband picked me up and took me to Heather's. She and Kelli were busy cooking desserts for our Thanksgiving shin-dig on Saturday. We chatted, watched a movie, and just relaxed! I stayed from Thursday afternoon until bright and early Sunday morning.

Friday, Heather had to go to class (she is taking Chinese classes to learn the language), so I went with Kelli to the Hotel and Metro. We went to the hotel where we would celebrate Thanksgiving with approximately 60 other Americans, most teaching in Wuhan and a few travellers. At the hotel we explained how we wanted the room set up for Saturday and what we needed from them. After that was all worked out we headed to Metro (a Chinese type Sam's club thing). I bought a few American items and we bought another turkey!! I even bought a Santa hat, when converted to US money it was about $2! For the evening Heather and I hung out. We ended at Dairy Queen for dessert!!

Saturday, we packed a coffee maker, creamer, coffee, tea, a pumpkin roll, 3 pumpkin pies, green beans, serving spoons, Christmas movies, and many games to take with us. We looked like we were packed for vacation! When we arrived at noon there were already at least 20 people there. People continued to filter in for the next hour. Being the type of person to not sit back and watch but to help, I ended up in the kitchen. For the big private rooms they have a big hotel kitchen. This is where our turkeys, gravy, and rolls cooked. I took many pictures and helped where I could! One of the older couples began slicing the turkey off the bone and the chefs (that had been following us around the kitchen and watching everything all morning) took over. But, we had to explain no bones! It is very common in China to cut the meat and bones together. They took over and Kelli got everyone seated.

They dismissed us like a potluck! There was more than enough food, reminded me of feeding the 5,000. We even had enough for everyone for dinner! Once we finished eating people started playing games and drinking coffee. Since the Chinese did not want to come in and disturb us we figured it would be easier to stack the dishes on a cart so they didn't have to wait late. So I went into the kitchen and stole a cart. A few of us began stacking and clearing room for people to play games. We had a lot of fun!! It got pretty entertaining! Though most would agree I generally am!!

We played poker, Cranium, Taboo, Checkers, Chess, Mrs. Pacman, and other card games. Some watched Miracle on 34th Street.

All in all we had a wonderful time celebrating the holiday together. It reminded us we have much to be Thankful for!