Michael asks us ALL THE TIME for his "show" on TV...like ALL THE TIME. It is annoying. I only let him watch it once a day for 30 minutes and that is it. It's just baby einstein words so it is educational and harmless...but still!

He has started saying no to us. We are not happy about that and are trying to restrict it!

That's it for now.

Thanksgiving at the Daniels!

On Thursday, we celebrated Thanskgiving at Michael's best friend's house! Kirsten, Jonathan and Jonah hosted an amazing Thanksgiving!

They had a great turkey with all the fixin's! I brought chestnut stuffing, celery stuffing balls, cranberry salad, and green bean casserole. Kirsten made this amazing sweet potato biscuits that Brian has been asking me to make now! She is about 8 months pregnant and made an amazing Thanksgiving. I am super impressed!

The boys decided to crack open a bottle of wine for us:

And after our huge meal, we celebrated with Thanksgiving bingo, complete with awesome prizes like a box of nails and a magnifying glass. Target came through with it's pin the hat on the turkey game. Jonah was pretty good at it:

Thanks go out to Brian's mom for sending us our post dinner/dessert entertainment! We had the adults playing too:

It was great fun and we had an amazing time! It is nice to have other American friends here to celebrate with us since we are so far from family. Today (Saturday), we've got another Thanksgiving to go to!

We are so thankful for our friends here and our life here. It is an amazing experience that constantly rewards us in surprising ways. But the thing that always stands out to me, is how much we miss our family and friends back at home as well. What a blessing you all are to us and we thank you for being a part of our lives!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Shopping!

Love,
P

Black Friday

Yesterday, we had a fun day! Michael and I met Brian at headquarters and we had lunch together. Brian found a good Pho place!!!! FINALLY! So we all had pho for lunch. Michael LOVES it so it was a huge treat for us, especially with this cold weather! And it is always nice to meet more Vietnamese people...reminds me of my parents! :o)

*SIDE NOTE*
For those of you who do not know, pho is Vietnamese beef noodle soup. And not all pho is made the same either. How do you know if a pho place is good?

• The broth is clear. You should be able to see down to at least the middle of your bowl. If the broth is cloudy and murky, it is usually not a good pho place.
• You are not incredibly thirsty after you eat a bowl. If you are really really thirsty for about an hour or so after you have eaten the bowl, they have used too much MSG for flavoring.

**SIDE NOTE END**

Then, we headed over to a Salon des Vignerons, which is basically wine tasting on SPEED in a convention center. It was in a HUGE convention hall at Porte des Versailles (nowhere near the chateau incidentally). Imagine just HUNDREDS of little booths of people selling wine and offering tastings. Aisle after aisle...of wines from EVERYWHERE in France. And mostly small independent wine makers too! We made out with some sweet wines, Gerwurstraminer, some chocolate, and macaroons! VERY overwhelming but interesting at the same time.

Then, we headed home and ate Thanskgiving leftovers. I made 40 cupcakes and Brian watched Underworld 2. Hardly our best date night yet.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving has been dandy!

Love,
Phuong