We are the Hudsons: Thanksgiving in China and 100 day Celebrations!

So it has now been three Thanksgivings here in China.....as many of you have heard the story of the $100 turkey, we again ordered our turkey here to have a real Thanksgiving dinner! It was so worth it....I love turkey! Since Thanksgiving is on a Thursday we waited until Saturday to have our feast since Brian had to work and the kids had school on Thanksgiving. This is still such a strange concept to me that the holidays are different and what is such a special day at home is business as usual here in China. What i noticed this year that i hadn't really seen in the past was advertisements for sales mimicking Black Friday deals here, nothing amazing but some shops were advertising for these deals.

So we made out Thanksgiving dinner, Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, corn, bread, stuffing, and pies! It is pretty easy to find most ingredients here except the turkey....so we imported that and we made everything home made! It felt like Thanksgiving! We were luck enough to share this with a few close families here and play some games and relax after our meal. This year I am so thankful for my family and friends, for the ability we have had to travel and live abroad and for all of our health.

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Grace was ready to eat before the food was ready!

After Thanksgiving along came some 100 day celebrations! This is a tradition in China when a baby is born to wait 100 days before having a lunch usually to present the baby to friends and family. I learned that if you have a girl the party is before 100 days and a boy the party is after 100 days. They still call it a 100 day party. Brian had 4 guys at his company become dad's recently so we were luck enough to be included in a few of these celebrations!

The kids really liked meeting the baby!

It seems that the celebration is the meal, the baby is shown to everyone during this time, both sets of grandparents are there. Hong Bao is given or red envelopes with money is most common, more so than a present. The family gives a box of gifts to each person who attends with some snacks and treats inside to celebrate the baby! The meal is huge as is traditional celebrations in China. Food upon food was presented to our table as you can see, it was delicious! Certain foods like the crab, lobster, turtle and having many soups seem to be very common among regular dishes for these special events such as babies and weddings.

In China it isn't common to have the traditional American baby shower. The family buys what they need for the baby. After the baby is born, tradition says the mother and baby shouldn't go out for 30 days they are too susceptible to illness. This is where you can read a little information on this: http://www.havingababyinchina.com/culture/after-birth/ .

Lots of celebration this month......until next time!