Thanksgiving Love

Hello Friends and Family,

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We miss you all on this special day and we hope that your day is filled with love and with family. It is hard to be so far away from you during this time, but each of you are in our thoughts and prayers and we are thankful for your love and support while we are on this adventure. We had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving day here, as we are ahead on the time schedule, so our Thanksgiving day is over and its time for the Christmas Season to begin. This morning, we spent time decorating our apartment with lights and decorations. We had fun playing Christmas music and trying to make our little temporary home here feel Christmasy. We had hot chocolate and are about to watch a Christmas movie to start the season.

We are very blessed to have met some wonderful people here who invited us to join them for a Thanksgiving feast. Along with 30 or so other adults and children, we each chipped in and had a true American Thanksgiving meal. There was turkey, apple pie, pumpkin pie, cookies, mashed potatoes and many other dishes that made it a very special meal. Each of the people we have gotten to know are so very kind and loving and they feel so much like family already. It was enjoyable to spend time with them. We even each went around the room and said what we were thankful for, also a Thorson and Thornberry tradition. A lot of the kids are affectionately calling us 'shoe shoe' and 'aie' which mean, 'uncle and aunt' in Chinese. We enjoy the kids just as much as the adults! As we were leaving tonight, one of the boys even asked 'Where is Kealy Aie?' And when I tease him or tickle him he says, 'Stop it, Shoe Shoe!' We had a great time, although it was hard being away from home today, we were still able to enjoy spending time with friends that feel like family.




Tomorrow we are hopping on a train and leaving for a popular tourist destination with some of the friends mentioned above. We are going to a town called Yangshuo, Northeast of here about five hours by train. The scenery should be beautiful and it will be a relaxing weekend, strolling the tourist streets looking for souvenirs and enjoying the famous and beautiful Li River. We are also hoping to watch Cormorants fishing at night and maybe even take a bamboo raft down a part of the river. It will also be very fun to simply spend time with some friends that we enjoy being with so much.

We'll be radio silent for a few days, but we hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving celebration. We miss you, we love you, and we are so very thankful for your friendship and support. Happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson