lizzybennet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lizzybennet) wrote2006-11-25 11:23 pm
lizzybennet) wrote2006-11-25 11:23 pm
Thanksgiving pics
Here are a few random shots to give you an idea of what our Thanksgiving was like. Although she tried to fight against it, Mariannette ended up with virtually everyone sitting and eating in her apartment. The powers-that-be just sort of pushed her into it. She tried to have the dinner held elsewhere, but somehow it wound up at her home. I think it's safe to say everyone had a grand time.
Petey had to have a drumstick. He pretty much ate the whole thing, too.
When the turkeys were brought in, several of our Chinese friends and guests rushed up to the table to take pictures of it. This was their first Thanksgiving, after all :)
I finally have a picture of Zou to show you! Isn't she a cutie? I think she had a good time. Friday is normally her day off. She offered to come in to help with the preparations, but I told her we didn't want her to work, but we'd like to have her come as a guest. I think she felt somewhat weird about that, because she insisted to come in and work. This came about after she saw the huge amount of green beans that I had to fix for the dinner. I'm glad she was here, she really did help out a lot. She also made sure that no one walked off with my dishes after the dinner was over. I don't think she was going home until she had rounded up all my dishes :) How did I ever function with out her? I suppose the real question is, how will I function with out her when I return to the States!?
I know this picture is a little fuzzy, but I wanted to post it anyway. Here we have Mariannette, her hubby Rene, their son Gabe, and their nanny Wang. We've really become good friends with each other, especially since we live about 20 steps away from each other now. Wang pops up here all day long with Gabe to let him play with the boys. Mariannette also pops up frequently. I was worried that it would be bothersome to live in such close quarters with everyone, but it's not. Truthfully, I like it. These people are the closest thing to family that we have here and it's nice to have each other to rely on.
Qing Qing came to the party! The boys were so very excited to see her. They monopolized her time for quite a while. They've missed her a lot since we've moved and she can no longer teach them Chinese lessons (its too far for her to come out to the campus on a regular basis.) She also brought us Thanksgiving gifts, which was totally unexpected...mainly because Thanksgiving isn't a time we traditionally give gifts, but whatever. She got the boys a box of chocolates and she gave Chris and I this beautiful handwoven framed art. When we went to the silk weaving museum, we saw them being made on the looms. It is a recreation of the type of badge that magistrates used to wear. Of course, this is of particular interest to Chris because his interests lie in magistrates. I was a little surprised that Qing Qing knew that much about his studies, but I've decided not to read too much into that... The other young woman in the photo is one of the TA's for the group, Chen Lao Shi. I don't the guy's name, but he cooked for about an hour in my kitchen. I can only assume that he wanted to make some more traditional Chinese foods to go along with the meal. He made a sort of tofu soup that contained black jellied duck eggs. He asked me if I would like to taste it, and I said "I'll taste it after its cooked." Um, turns out it wasn't going to be cooked and the dish was done as it was. Yup, once again I had to remove my foot from my mouth. He also made some sort of crab dish and some fish balls. My kitchen smelled very fishy when he was done, but his dishes were a success with the rest of the party. I saw Zou going around to all the Chinese and telling them to make sure and try the tofu.
After a while, Mariannette and I realized that we hadn't seen our nannies in quite a while. We were beginning to feel guilty about having them stay so long and went to talk to them about what time they'd like to head for home. We found them upstairs, playing Mah Jong:) When we walked into the room, they started giggling like two little school girls who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Turns out that Zou and Wang play Mah Jong together on a regular basis, with their hubbies. They tried to teach Mariannette and I for a while, but I just can't seem to get it. Zou won every hand that she played! She's really good.
Connor didn't have a chance to take a nap because the day was so busy. I found him, crashed out in Roseille's arms. She's a student in the program and Connor is more receptive to her than most people. I was surprised that she actually got him to fall asleep in her arms, and she was very proud of herself.
For the most part, the boys stayed upstairs in our apartment and played video games. Everyone had their doors open and people were just wandering from home to home. I went upstairs periodically to check on the boys. Imagine my surprise to find that Mr. Du and Mr. Zhu were playing video games too! This gentlemen is Mr. Zhu and he's doing a pretty fair job of playing "Star Wars Legos". (Speaking of Star Wars, the boys watched "A New Hope" for the first time this week. They liked it a lot. Next, we watched "Return of the Jedi." Maybe I've just never seen the remastered edition before, but I was shocked and slightly appalled to see that Hayden whats-his-name was standing with Yoda and Obi-Wan at the closing scene. It just didn't feel quite right. Why change it?) Anyway, it was too cute to see these men playing video games with the boys.
Also, here is the link to the pictures that Qing Qing took.
Petey had to have a drumstick. He pretty much ate the whole thing, too.
When the turkeys were brought in, several of our Chinese friends and guests rushed up to the table to take pictures of it. This was their first Thanksgiving, after all :)
I finally have a picture of Zou to show you! Isn't she a cutie? I think she had a good time. Friday is normally her day off. She offered to come in to help with the preparations, but I told her we didn't want her to work, but we'd like to have her come as a guest. I think she felt somewhat weird about that, because she insisted to come in and work. This came about after she saw the huge amount of green beans that I had to fix for the dinner. I'm glad she was here, she really did help out a lot. She also made sure that no one walked off with my dishes after the dinner was over. I don't think she was going home until she had rounded up all my dishes :) How did I ever function with out her? I suppose the real question is, how will I function with out her when I return to the States!?
I know this picture is a little fuzzy, but I wanted to post it anyway. Here we have Mariannette, her hubby Rene, their son Gabe, and their nanny Wang. We've really become good friends with each other, especially since we live about 20 steps away from each other now. Wang pops up here all day long with Gabe to let him play with the boys. Mariannette also pops up frequently. I was worried that it would be bothersome to live in such close quarters with everyone, but it's not. Truthfully, I like it. These people are the closest thing to family that we have here and it's nice to have each other to rely on.
Qing Qing came to the party! The boys were so very excited to see her. They monopolized her time for quite a while. They've missed her a lot since we've moved and she can no longer teach them Chinese lessons (its too far for her to come out to the campus on a regular basis.) She also brought us Thanksgiving gifts, which was totally unexpected...mainly because Thanksgiving isn't a time we traditionally give gifts, but whatever. She got the boys a box of chocolates and she gave Chris and I this beautiful handwoven framed art. When we went to the silk weaving museum, we saw them being made on the looms. It is a recreation of the type of badge that magistrates used to wear. Of course, this is of particular interest to Chris because his interests lie in magistrates. I was a little surprised that Qing Qing knew that much about his studies, but I've decided not to read too much into that... The other young woman in the photo is one of the TA's for the group, Chen Lao Shi. I don't the guy's name, but he cooked for about an hour in my kitchen. I can only assume that he wanted to make some more traditional Chinese foods to go along with the meal. He made a sort of tofu soup that contained black jellied duck eggs. He asked me if I would like to taste it, and I said "I'll taste it after its cooked." Um, turns out it wasn't going to be cooked and the dish was done as it was. Yup, once again I had to remove my foot from my mouth. He also made some sort of crab dish and some fish balls. My kitchen smelled very fishy when he was done, but his dishes were a success with the rest of the party. I saw Zou going around to all the Chinese and telling them to make sure and try the tofu.
After a while, Mariannette and I realized that we hadn't seen our nannies in quite a while. We were beginning to feel guilty about having them stay so long and went to talk to them about what time they'd like to head for home. We found them upstairs, playing Mah Jong:) When we walked into the room, they started giggling like two little school girls who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Turns out that Zou and Wang play Mah Jong together on a regular basis, with their hubbies. They tried to teach Mariannette and I for a while, but I just can't seem to get it. Zou won every hand that she played! She's really good.
Connor didn't have a chance to take a nap because the day was so busy. I found him, crashed out in Roseille's arms. She's a student in the program and Connor is more receptive to her than most people. I was surprised that she actually got him to fall asleep in her arms, and she was very proud of herself.
For the most part, the boys stayed upstairs in our apartment and played video games. Everyone had their doors open and people were just wandering from home to home. I went upstairs periodically to check on the boys. Imagine my surprise to find that Mr. Du and Mr. Zhu were playing video games too! This gentlemen is Mr. Zhu and he's doing a pretty fair job of playing "Star Wars Legos". (Speaking of Star Wars, the boys watched "A New Hope" for the first time this week. They liked it a lot. Next, we watched "Return of the Jedi." Maybe I've just never seen the remastered edition before, but I was shocked and slightly appalled to see that Hayden whats-his-name was standing with Yoda and Obi-Wan at the closing scene. It just didn't feel quite right. Why change it?) Anyway, it was too cute to see these men playing video games with the boys.
Also, here is the link to the pictures that Qing Qing took.