Singapore Thanksgiving

If you know me well, you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I absolutely love it.  I love the whole Autumn season.  I love cooking the Thanksgiving dinner.  I love wearing my adorable Thanksgiving apron that my mom made for me.  I spend a week in the kitchen preparing for the meal.  I love to decorate my table and I love having a ton of guests.  Scott and I have been together for 11 Thanksgivings now, and I think I've cooked for 8 of them.

This year was completely different.  First, it's hot.  Singapore doesn't have a change in temperature during the year because we are nearly on the equator.  It's the same temperature every day, warm.  It's not as hot as summer in Austin or Phoenix, but it's definitely summer weather.  Most days between 80 and 85 degrees.  Some days hotter.

Second, we don't have family here.  I know that's obvious, but a big part of Thanksgiving is celebrating with family.  Now, there have been years when we haven't celebrated Thanksgiving with family, but not many.

Third, Americans are the only ones that celebrate Thanksgiving.  Here in Singapore, the kids have school and Scott has to work and it's just not the same.  I think something about the routine of Thanksgiving makes it feel like the holiday too.  Picking out the turkey and setting it to brine on Wednesday night.  Heading out to the Turkey Trot (in Austin) and then coming home to cook all day.  Thinking of friends and family that are traveling.  Watching football and sitting down to read all the ads for black Friday.  Knowing that we're probably going to get the Christmas lights out in the next couple of days.  I think of Thanksgiving as the beginning of the holiday season.  

But, here, that routine doesn't exist.  I decided that I'm not going to make huge efforts to duplicate the Thanksgiving holiday here, because I just don't think it can be done.  

For our celebration, we met up with the American Woman's Association (I joined after we arrived) for a Thanksgiving potluck.  Several other American families from our condo headed over to a big park on the beach and celebrated Thanksgiving with us.  We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon.  We got to eat turkey and all of the fixing.  The flavors were perfect.  Pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and candied yams and stuffing.  It was all there. 

Scott and Wyatt played ball.

Here's the tent with the tables set up.

It rained a little and the kids all got wet!

The kids all got balloon animals!  So fun!

We had a lovely afternoon with our sweet friends from the Chuan.  I'm glad we got to taste the flavors of Thanksgiving without me having to cook everything.

To everybody reading this and celebrating today...  Happy Thanksgiving!  We are so grateful to count you as our friend.  Thanks for sharing this experience with us!