Haser Happenings: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, one of our families favorite holidays.

(Ok, aside from Krystin, she feels it infringes upon her birthday.)

Not just for the delish food, but that definitely doesn't hurt!

We love Thanksgiving for sense of family and gratitude that it brings with it.

The time to reflect upon the year so far and our lives...

To sit back and appreciate the opportunities of our lives,

the people in our world,

and the many great blessings we have....

I personally love the positive attitude that Thanksgiving promotes.

It promotes a "I am grateful for..." attitude.

An attitude, that even amid trial and challenges

can help you to see the many blessings that are present and good in life.

I am a firm believer in a Positive Attitude...

Life was never meant to be easy or stress free and especially not fair.

Keeping that in mind, and focusing on what you do have,

and realizing that this is YOUR life - only you can make the most of it,

can help you to see the beauty in the sunrise each morning

(even when you are tired and would rather sleep in!).

A positive attitude promotes happiness in you life

and those around you, it can be contagious.

I am so grateful that we have a holiday that focuses on gratitude.

Living in Hong Kong this year,

Thanksgiving was a bit different.

No cute Pilgrim and Turkey decorations adorning the shelves.

The stores went strait from Halloween to Christmas....

I didn't think we would even be able to have a Turkey dinner.

Our kitchen is SUPER tiny,

and it doesn't even have an OVEN! shutter, I know...

We do have this:

It is a small oven that fits on the counter.

I placed a SMALL package of Pudding in their for size comparison.

(The pudding was imported, btw they don't sell it locally.)

So.... HOW were we to have a proper Turkey dinner?

Todd has a friend at work who has lived in HK for 10 plus years. He is NOT American (from NZ),

but he knew of an American BBQ place downtown that does a Thanksgiving feast! Todd was thrilled and made the arrangements, and of COURSE we invited Todd's awesome friend.

It was a little tricky to coordinate, as Krystin and Logan's school schedule along with running schedule is crazy. Thursday they train for track, so we made reservations for Friday. What we didn't realize was that they had a school carnival on Friday that they had to work at, so they had to leave the carnival early and take a cab from school to the restaurant, which isn't as easy as it sounds. They had to have the address in Traditional Chinese so the driver could read it,

and then they had to find the restaurant. Here let me give you an idea of how tricky it is to find:

On the left hand side of this picture,

the small dark box above the red sign says Blue Smoke BBQ.

That is the only sign for the restaurant.

This is the entrance, confusing right?

You have to go into a tiny elevator to the third floor.

See Todd he is pointing to it below.

There was a LITTLE drama with Krystin and Logan's arrival, as the reservation was at 6:30pm, and we hadn't even heard from them at that time. Apparently, Logan's phone was dead, they were running late, and Krystin couldn't find her phone. Oh, and the address for the place was in Logan's phone. Luckily, Logan brought a spare phone battery with him! yay! So, they made it by 7, and all was well.

Some food pics.

Raw mixed veggies appetizer included onions, kids were confused, it was funny.