Thanksgiving, so much to be thankful for this year!

I'd just like to start out by saying how grateful I am to have such a strong and amazing support system from all my family and friends. I could not be here without you all and even though sometimes I miss you so bad it hurts, I know you are thinking of me and will be there when I come home. Ok, getting a little cheesy, but it's true!

After debating all day whether or not I wanted to make the trip into Bangkok after work to attend an expensive Thanksgiving buffet, I decided against it. I love Thanksgiving, but more then the turkey and stuffing it's all about family... and if it's not my mom's cooking then Thai food would be just fine :) So I invited some of the teachers from my school to go out to a really nice restaurant right by our apartment. One of the teachers at the boys school, Eric, tutors three children everyday after school and was going to meet up around 7:30 for dinner. After hearing that it was Thanksgiving, the family told him that they wanted to take us out (and it happened to be the same restaurant).  Since he didn't know the other 2 teachers were coming the family, he called me, we went with them, and the others met us there. So a small Thanksgiving put together very last minute, turned into an even with 3 Thai families, 6 children, 3 American teachers and 1 Russian teacher! The families were SO nice! The mother spoke some English and they made their children all introduce themselves and ask about us. They are in the English Program (very expensive at this school) and were the most adorable things ever. During dinner they went to play in the toy room so we talked and laughed, learning new Thai words and teaching them English words. We explained Thanksgiving and how nice it was to be with families, we all said what we were thankful for after explaining it to them as well.
The food was amazing and I did not regret not having turkey one bit. We had green curry with chicken, grilled prawns, fish cakes, vietnamese spring rolls and dumplings, seafood curry baked in a coconut, veggies, crab fried rice, grilled snapper with some kind of delicious sauce and fresh mozzarella and tomato salad. Yeah, Thais really know how to treat.
After "stuffing" ourselves and having lots of laughs (they kept saying I looked like Angelina Jolie?) They insisted on picking up the tab ( I mentioned how nice this place was right?) and driving us home. It is unexpected occurrences like these that I feel so happy to be in Thailand and meeting such wonderful people.
When I woke up at 6 am to get ready for school, I gave my family a call. They had just had their own Thanksgiving meal. It was great to know that they were all together and hear their voices. Can't wait to get some turkey next year!