Sunday, November 25, 2012

Thanksgiving & our American Best



Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!!



Our second Thanksgiving in Ukraine & we see just how American we can roll....


Friends & Family
We hosted a potluck style feast for us & two other families.  
The kids painted ornaments (kit purchased here) and performed a circus... 
(as American capitalists, they charged admission!)

Over dinner we shared what we were thankful for: 
  • Zoe - her parents, friends etc
  • Xavier - himself
  • Quincy - video games



All the fixins'
We can get turkey & potatoes anytime - sweet potatoes and fresh cranberries with enough searching and some luck....

And our American Embassy friends who joined us, have access to the Commissary - a legendary place that sells all kinds of goods imported from the States.  

They were able to bring - among other things - canned cranberry sauce (Zoe discovered her love) & real ice cream...
 (the stuff sold here doesn’t melt – a bit creepy)


Getting in the Christmas Spirit:
Since fresh trees aren’t sold here until the end of December (people put them up for New Years), we secured our first artificial tree last year.  Thus, we were able to deck the halls for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving
As much as we hated giving up a real tree, pulling a light wrapped tree up from the basement really was easy.

Xavier hung our magnet Santas

Zoe added some local flair


Black Friday
If you look really hard, you can find a holiday promotion or two here.  


In the quest for more, we felt it appropriate to check out a new mall that opened nearby - Ocean Plaza...

It was utter chaos to get to since the mall is open - but the parking lot is lagging behind!  Once inside, we found a nice place - with a cool fountain up front & a giant aquarium  
(with oddly very few fish!)

The food court has cool architecture...

....but not so fab food (the burger was deemed inedible by both Zoe & Xavier)

After walking 2 floors, the kids were tired & we went home empty-handed.


But thanks to the wonderful world wide web, we were able to participate in Black Friday anyhow – and even have a time zone advantage!


Here's to Thanksgiving - one of our absolute favorite holidays - with friends, food, festivity & shopping!

Hope you had a great one.






No comments:

Post a Comment