Haferkamp Holidays 2019
On December 1, 2019 by Keturah HaferkampWeeks ago when we first arrived one of our neighbors, Bill, loaned us his convection oven. We used it for the first time for American Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving Day for us is always a one day affair. Black Friday goes by ignored as I purposefully (probably stupidly) miss out on the best sales deals of the year…blissfully unaware.
Any way, on Thanksgiving Day we used the convection to roast a rack of lamb and several lamb chops. The rack was Australian imported but the chops were China-raised. We steamed a fresh vegetable medly and mashed some potatoes with silken pats of butter. Several butter rolls from the local bakery rounded out the meal very nicely. And for dessert: our favorite cream egg tarts, the famous Portuguese pasteis de nata!
Because we had no seasoned salt here my husband spent the morning mincing garlic to encrust the lamb. All that painstaking effort produced marvelous results. We ate well.
That Saturday we were invited to have Thanksgiving Potluck gathering but we were fighting very bad colds and coughs so…we decided to stay home. 😟 Sad to miss all our new friends!
It so happens that I do not have classes on Thursdays. So Thanksgiving day looked similar to how it usually does. We ate and then we decorated the “tree”.
Our tree this year is an image of a fir tree printed onto a plain white sheet. We mounted the sheet onto our wall with Velcro and decorated it with a few lights and ornaments. It was such goofy fun! The sight of that tree just cracks me up. It’s a double fake!
Friday was a typical work day. For most of my colleagues, Thursday was too. On Saturday we lounged around eating and talking and reading and playing legos and watching Star Wars. It was a perfect Thanksgiving weekend.
November for us is a showcase of daily reflection. At the end of everyday we talk about what we are thankful for. This year because we are in a new environment, we added a fun twist. Using whiteboard markers, we actually write the “Thankful for” lists out on mirrors that are in the hallway. So each time we walk through the hall we can see each others’ thankful thoughts.
Can you imagine walking down a hall and seeing that you are someone’s reason for gratitude? That happened to me recently. It was a very sweet surprise.
🐏🐏🐏
Now onward to December and the sober anticipation of Advent. We built our own advent reader this year and we are testing its functionality this month! Very excited to see how it goes.
December also marks the end of our time in China. The countdown has begun. We fly home on December 20.
🎄🎄🎄
I downloaded a little surprise digital Advent Calendar for my family since this year we will not have our traditional chocolate calendar. We have our Jesse Tree ornaments but this digital calendar will have to do.