Sweet November

The holidays are officially here. November always proves to be a busy month for us and this year was no exception. We started off the month by celebrating our 3rd Anniversary by hosting a dinner party for some friends. Then a few days later, we celebrated Marcus’ 27th birthday during our weekly English Corner.


We decided this year rather than buying gifts we would take a weekend getaway and go to Beijing. We visited the Beijing Zoo, got to see the Panda exhibit, spent a few hours in Ikea dreaming about how we would decorate a house if we had the money and space, and treated ourselves to Outback and Starbucks. We also spent some time listening to the Song of Solomon podcast series by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church. (Highly Recommended) It was nice to spend this weekend together and take a look at our marriage and see how we can better serve and love each other during this coming year.

In Beijing, we picked up a few goodies for our Thanksgiving Feast including a ham and a $50 turkey to bring back to our city. The guys decided that this year for Thanksgiving they wanted to deep fry a turkey and spent all month researching the method and gathering the supplies. When it was all said and done, it was a huge hit. It was so tender and juicy– we all decided that a deep fried turkey is the best way to go.

We celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday with 14 other Americans this year. We definitely had a feast thanks to all the people back in the States who sent us goods to make our favorite dishes. Even though we missed being with our family, we are so thankful that we have great friends here to help make the holidays so special.