Thanksgiving 2014

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving this year in Josh's apartment with our work family and friends.  Josh bought the turkey and everyone brought their favorite trimmings.  B even ventured out this year and made a homemade pumpkin pie!

The Randalls are ready for the holidays! 

:)

Chillin' like Vanillin

...as seen at our local Starbucks....and more than one location!

Home Visit

I made a quick home visit to ATL to spend time with Mom and Grams leaving B in Shanghai.  We had gorgeous fall weather (a great change from Shanghai smog!), did some shopping - we were DESPERATE for new, quality luggage! - ate some Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell of course, and helped Grams organize and even clean out her fridge!  No place like home :)

Big Yellow Duck

B bought a new toy at the fake market this week - a fast, remote control boat!  He headed to Century Park to play around with it in the lake.  I was so excited when he sent me the photo below of the BIG YELLOW DUCK!

Big Yellow Duck is an art sculpture by Dutch artist Florentijin Hofman.  The duck tours the world to "spread joy to the world" by evoking childhood memories.  It has been to several ports in Europe, Hong Kong, and finally to a 'lake' in Shanghai!

Ziplock

In the metro, like many metros, there are several vending machines.  The most recent addition at our metro stop is a Ziplock vending machine - ziplock bags!  It is SO popular!  We asked our Chinese teacher about it....apparently you can scan a code using your phone and qualify for a free box of the bags.  You enter the code into the machine to claim.  There is usually a long line but the contents of this machine were just replaced.  I'm sure it'll be empty again soon!  And in case you're wondering....IF you can find ziplock bags in Shanghai, they are very expensive!  We stick to tupperware or just buy the Chinese equivalents...

Little Mermaid Bakery

In our mall there is a bakery 'Little Mermaid'....funny right?  We don't buy a lot from there but every now and then stop in for a goodie.  Anyone care for a milk cream snail???  And no, we did not try...  The way things are named here just crack me up :) ha ha ha

Halloween 2014

This weekend we headed to a friend's rooftop Halloween party!  We snagged a couple of fun Harry Potter cloaks from a costume store here and I recreated my famous wands from B's Harry Potter themed party a couple of years ago.  Photos are dark but we had a good time!  Houses of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff represented!

B even pretended to be Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy!