A Thanksgiving Craft

I spent all day Saturday hanging out with Vàng and Minh. Yep, I had a lot of fun playing with my 12 and 7 year old friends!

First, we walked to the store. Vietnamese people don't seem to like walking very much, so this was a feat in itself.

The trip to the store was to find supplies for an idea I had for later in the afternoon. I wanted to make a Thanksgiving craft. I like crafts, and they like learning about American things, so it seemed like a great combo to me! And I've been trying to find new things to do with them. It should come as no surprise that the store didn't have anything like construction paper. I don't know why I thought it might. So we made due with sharpies (rumor has it they have crayons or markers or something, but when the time came to use them no one seemed to know what I was asking about), and recycled school papers.

I did most of the craft myself. Truthfully, they had little interest in it. I think it was more for me. I wanted to feel like I was participating in the holiday season that is beginning this week, even if it isn't happening in my corner of the world. But Vàng loaned me her hand for the feathers and was at least entertained watching me make a silly hand turkey.

Vàng does not like being in pictures. The only way I got her to be in this one with me was by promising to play cards with her. Some of you may know me as a not game loving person. Well, that was the old me. The new me plays games ALL THE TIME. Seriously. On Saturday I think I played at least 20 times. We got through a variety of Vietnamese and American games. It's fun, for the first few hours...but to get her to be in a picture, a few more games was totally worth it!

Turns out our little Turkey friend will soon be famous. Minh is going to take him to school (English Class) to show his class about Thanksgiving. Mission accomplished :)