Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Thanksgiving day.  We have so many things to be thankful for this year, as we do every year.  Thinking about the holiday here in Korea we think that it is one of our favorite Canadian holidays.  Thanksgiving has yet to be taken over as a commercial holiday of extravagant gift giving and overspending.  Thanksgiving is a holiday for reflection on the year gone by and all of the blessings that have been bestowed on us.  It is an excellent family holiday for most people just spending time with family and cooking a turkey feast.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends here in Korea by cooking a ‘traditional Canadian meal’ and spending time thinking about all the reasons we have to be thankful.  At home we would have had one large turkey but we couldn’t find a turkey at all in our grocery store.  Also, I don’t think they grow their birds much bigger than 1Kg.   So, we ended up roasting 4 small chickens instead.  The rest of the ingredients were easily located in our Korean outdoor street market.  We were pleased that it tasted close to how it would have tasted at home.

It was the first time that we have had the opportunity to host a Thanksgiving Dinner.  Most of our friends come from South Africa and it was also their first time celebrating Thanksgiving at all.  I am pretty sure that we did not disappoint.  For most of us it was the first ‘proper meal’ we’ve had since arriving in Korea.  For everyone attending it was their first truly home cooked meal in as many as 10 months or as few as 2 months.  That in itself was something to be truly thankful for.

We all had many reasons to be thankful but I can only speak for myself about what I am thankful for.  I am sure that Brynn will agree with most of my reasons.  I am thankful that we have been able to make this trip to Korea- and  that Brynn and I could make it together.  It would not have been possible if we did not have so many people supporting us from home, so we are thankful for such a great support system back home.  We miss all of our family and friends in Canada but at the same time have come to realize even more how much of a blessing they are to us.  I am thankful for our new group of friends here in Korea who are actually more like our Korean family.  I don’t think we will know how much we mean to each other until we separate but for now we just know that we have as much support as we need to make our time in Korea as enjoyable as possible.  I am thankful for the internet.  Moving far away is not nearly as bad since we can still stay in close contact with people and things through the internet.  Those are just a few of many reasons to be thankful, I don’t want to ramble on any longer.

I hope that all of our Canadian friends and family are having a great Thanksgiving holiday.  We wish we could be there.  Happy Thanksgiving!