A little different this year

Thanksgiving looked a little different this year...
It looked like trips to the meat market down the street in the cold, taking a bong bong (3 wheeled transportation) with team mates) to pick up produce and very fresh meat.
At the meat market, the silk warms wiggle around in trays, the blood pools on the ground from the freshly slaughtered animals being cut to order, and fish swim in tanks ready to be bought.
It is a whole new experience. A great place to practice Chinese, observe culture and generally be gawked at by Chinese men.
This Thanksgiving looked like divvying up recipes between the teams, making sure everyone brought something different to the FEAST at the language school in the city on Friday. It looked like helping boys know how many potatoes to buy for mash potatoes and trying to buy ham hocks by gesturing to my heal and saying to word pork in Chinese... Didn't work but it was worth a try.
Thanksgiving this year sounded like my dad telling me how much he ate and the negative impact it was having on his body. It was all of my siblings crowded around Skype for a good long conversation. It was a video they made at the table before they ate telling me how much they missed me and talking with my grandma's that evening to tell them I loved them.
It looked like spending a whole day in the Kitchen on Friday, classes canceled for me. I made green beans and potatoes, amazing pumpkin pie with REAL whip cream (from the foreign store), and mushroom and veggie stuffed chicken with homemade Cream of chicken soup. It looked like being adventurous and failing and trying again. It looked like listening to Heidi Baker and eating Ramen in Tannah's Kitchen for Lunch.
3 o'clock rolled around and I felt like I was back home trying to get to Grandmas on tim. Panic and stress- the taxi is waiting outside.. hurry hurry to get the food packed and downstairs. I hold the pie in my hands while the taxi carreens through the streets of Changchun, speeding quickly, weaving through traffic. I pray for the dishes in the trunk.
We arrive and there is a real turkey someone ordered and Thanksgiving seems more real for some reason because there are 15-20 kids of all ages running and screaming all around and families mingling and my spiritual family all around. Though I haven't met them yet, I feel a kindred spirit and a sense of peace.
We eat too too too much and go back for seconds. We talk of food babies, eat pumpkin cheese cake and i find new friends in two precious little girls about 3 and 4. I chase them around with a play blow fish while they scream and laugh. I don't know who is more amused-me or them. Eventually one of the little girls comes to me and annouces she is tired and the game is over. Later we pretend to take a taxi ride together. She annouces "Buckle your seatbelts, it;s gonna be a roller coster ride!" I think about a little girl who has grown up in China and who more naturally imagines taxi rides than car rides and crazy Chinese drivers who really do give you a roller coaster ride. She announces that the ride is over and when I ask how much I owe her, she tells me, "22." My little 3 year old friend says, "Oh, I have 22." and pulls the imaginary money from her purse.
I want babies ever MORE. My teammates hold Jacinda, a 3 month old precious baby with gorgeous blue eyes and we coo and work our best to make her laugh and smile.
We come back and clean and watch.. Babies the documentary (it wasn't my choice by I didn't disagree). After the movie, we look out to find a white glistening, snow covered world. It had snowed at least 2-3 inches during the movie.