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A whirlwind of a week getting ready for Christmas, going to Everland (Korea' s version of Disneyworld....sort of....), getting a much needed haircut, getting to open a couple of packages early and putting out cookies for Santa. Merry Christmas to all of you!!
Day number 15, chocolate and candy covered marshmallows, inspired by http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/.
Another star for our ever-growing garland.
A star for the top of the tree. (Of course in Korea, it is very hard to find a star that is actually made for the top of a tree. O. found and liked this very large hanging star. Thank goodness it was foam or else the mild leaning may have turned into a tree falling all the way down.)
O. is really into counting these days, and calendar days are no exception. He has been asking since Halloween when Christmas will be here, so we decided to help him out with a countdown of sorts once December started. Inspired by the stars that I saw here, http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2009/12/advent-garland.html, I started crocheting. Every morning, we hide a star along with a piece of paper that has an activity or little gift attached.
So far, we've roasted marshmallows...
made and decorated gingerbread men...
and had candy cane hot chocolate.
It's turning out to be a sweet season! Up next are pics of the tree, our ever-growing garland of stars, the gingerbread house that was built, decorated, and eaten and other holiday happenings.
Hope you all are having a great December too! Be back soon...off to make a lasagna for the holiday office party tonight!
Our 8+ kg turkey (over 17 pounds)...beautiful, brined, and ready for carving. We used Alton Brown's roasting method and it was wonderful - cooked in about 3 1/2 hours and all of it wonderfully moist.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html
The purchase of a thermometer was a very smart addition as well - we would have never believed it would have been completely cooked that quickly otherwise.
O. overseeing the carving.
Some of us haven't had turkey in three years, so it was a pretty big deal. Everyone had to oversee the carving at this point. So much good food...mashed potatoes, freshly made cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mushroom cornbread stuffing and apple-sausage-chestnut-cornbread stuffing, squash casserole, homemade rolls, baked corn, and of course the turkey and gravy. Mmmmmm....let's do Thanksgiving again.
Hey, pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen. It's S.'s dream. Just kidding.
Introducing Koreans not only to turkey, but to the fine American tradition of leftovers. Is it wrong that I asked everyone to bring their own tupperware?
Homemade peanut butter cups. Look at the boy's face. We were lucky to have any to pass out after dinner.
Dessert included the fore mentioned homemade peanut butter cups (I've already bookmarked the recipe to try later at O.'s request), zucchini bread, cranberry pistachio and chocolate chip almond biscotti, pecan pie, sweet potato pie and apple pie.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
The countdown to Christmas has begun here...I'll post pics of how we are helping O. count down. This morning involved roasting marshmallows on the stove before S. went to work. Nothing like counting down with sugar first thing in the morning!
So, obviously no one in Korea had off on Thursday for Thanksgiving, so we decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner here on Saturday. Up since about 5:30 this morning, I have three pies cooling in the pantry, two kinds of biscotti, two kinds of stuffing and a corn casserole waiting to go into the oven, and a 17+ pound turkey waiting in brine for it's turn in the oven. Do you think we'll have enough for 10 people? Did I mention that everyone's bringing a side dish as well?
Hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving in the states. I'll let you know how dinner went tomorrow!
Yesterday was Suneung, or Korean SAT day. The Korean SAT is very, very different from the American SAT. In Korea, students take the 9-hour test during their senior year, and it is one of the most important, if not the most important, factor in getting into a university. I read somewhere that Korea has the largest percentage of 18-34 year olds in college, and therefore it becomes very important to get into a good school in order to get a good job. If you do poorly on the Korean SAT, you can't re-take a month later like you can in the states - it is only offered ONCE a year! Talk about stress. A test that lasts all day, counts more than all your high school grades, and you start studying for often two or three years in advance. Yuck.
However, for us, Korean SAT day meant a lovely day off for S. in the middle of the week. So, we went up to Seoul to try to take O. to the Rolling Ball Museum. However, once we got there, we found out that it was one of those Korean temporary museums that was now unfortunately closed. O. took the news better than I did. I think strawberry ice cream helped.
As did getting to pretend to be the Mona Lisa.
Waaaaay to far for a taxi ride through Seoul....back to the subways.
So, we decided to head over to COEX mall and go to the aquarium instead. Two subways, a couple of smoothies and about an hour later, we were finally in the aquarium. Going late in the day, during the middle of the week, is definitely the time to go. There were few people and we could take our time looking at the exhibits without being pushed and shoved like we were the last time. (Of course, we did decide last time to go on New Years day when everyone had off...we are not the smartest when planning things...)
First exhibit...check out how big the catfish is at the bottom next to O.
Yes, those are fish in a washing machine, and fish and snowmen in a refrigerator. Those crazy Koreans and their creative exhibits.
Yep, the fish that eat dead skin are back....this time cleaning off O.'s fingers. With all the time we spent there, he has the cleanest hands in Cheonan. Video can be posted if anyone's interested. :)
There were fruit eating bats...
...really big fish...
... piranhas....who knew they were so pretty and sparkly...
...portrait of an eel by O. himself...
...lots of sharks...
...and the most awesome seal that raced back and forth with O. for almost 20 minutes straight. If I can get the video uploader to work sometime in this century, I'll put the video up tomorrow for you all to see.
O. had a great time.
The pink yarn has now been turned into a little pink sweater....
and the beginnings of a pink blanket.
I've bought a little pink snowsuit and little pink pants. When did I turn into such a girl? I blame all these pregnancy hormones.
Halloween is still not a very commonly observed holiday here in Korea. A lot of students know the basics of Halloween from their foreign teachers, but kids don't go trick-or-treating and costumes aren't found in most stores. Party stores do carry some costumes and decorations and I was able to find some Halloween themed toys at one of the larger supermarket chains. So, we had a couple of parties - one for my friend and her two kids and then another one with all the teachers at S.'s school.
For our party with the kids, we made homemade pizza, watched a couple of Halloween themed videos, ate lots of American-style snacks and then went trick-or-treating in the apartment. The adults all took a bowl of candy and went into a room, while the kids ran from door to door knocking and yelling "trick or treat!" The kids loved it and could have run back and forth all night if we had enough candy.
The next night, all of us dressed up and went over to a colleagues apartment for the school party. Again, we showed the kids that were there what trick-or-treating was by having adults in different rooms. O decided that he wanted to give out the candy, so he gave up his candy in order to have the adults come to his door.
That is S's actual baseball uniform that he was fitted for and wears for Saturday games.
Trying to explain why being an oven with a bun it is funny to Koreans was a bit difficult.
O was a ghost, but spent most of the night out of costume.
Sword fighting is a must at most parties, right?
Ice hand floating in punch.
Witches' finger cookies.
We convinced O. that he should have the costume on for at least part of the trick-or-treating.
Lots of good food and good company made for a great Halloween this year.
