Happy Thanksgiving

Good morning everyone!

After a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving Dinner at the Renaissance Yangtze, I'd like to share some great photos with you.

Left to right -

The first photo is Mr. Chen and his lovely wife, Li and their adorable son, Haotian. He really liked the pizza and the sushi. What a combination! The second photo is of me and Mr. Cui's beautiful daughter, Yijie. She is 9 years old and I saw her eating the strawberries off of the dense chocolate cake. The third photo is of David and (l to r) Hyde, Hattie and David's son, Yongqi. He wanted to leave his coat on throughout dinner and was not happy when his mother won that battle; but he finally "warmed" up to us and he liked all the fruit, pears and watermelon - all familiar things to him and to China. By the end of the night, he was running around with Hyde and having a ball.

We so enjoyed meeting the drivers' beautiful wives and children. Haotian greeted Denice and Lucienne with "Happy Thanksgiving". It was absolutely precious!

On behalf of the Westinghouse PSS Team, I'd like to thank everyone for participating in our Thanksgiving Celebration last night. We are so thankful for having each other here in Shanghai. This is a great team and we all get along very well. Last night, Mark gave the "blessing" and summed it up perfectly and of course, it brought me to tears. Thanks John for letting us put this altogether!

We are extremely thankful for our Chinese family and it was so nice to have them with us. Without these wonderful people, this power plant just couldn't happen. They are instrumental to our lives here; whether Mr. Chen, Mr. Cui and David are driving us to work or shopping or whether Maisie is coordinating everything or translating for us - we could not be here without them. I'm sorry Tony and his daughter couldn't make it - we'll have to have another party soon.

The food was great. So many different varieties. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and the cranberries were warm and were rather good. I sure hope Kate is buying up the Ocean Spray Orange Cranberry Sauce for me on Giant Eagle shelves - I want 3 at least. I really miss it. It's the closest to Mike's mom's recipe I can find.

I also want to say that I'm thankful to the Chinese government for giving us the opportunity for this cultural experience. Everyone we've met has been most supportive and kind and thoughtful. From the staff here at Shama where we live, to the security guards to the staff at Best Buy.

So today we are grateful and thankful for all of them and for the sacrifice they make for us each and every day. The Chinese work long hours - some of them work 7 days a week. They are amazing and I'm happy to be here.

BUT, on another note - I'm so happy to be going home - home to family, friends, colleagues, neighbors. We leave Shanghai in 14 days and we'll be back in The Burgh in 17 days.

All I want for Christmas is The Burgh! But I want the cake on the front of the December issue of Bon Appetit for my birthday! Kate, we'll go buy the ingredients. . .