The Andrus Family's Wuxi Adventure: Parker's Annual Dinner

Of course Ava LOVED the stage!

I am so happy I was able to experience Parker's Annual Dinner this year in Wuxi! This dinner is a pretty big deal in China as it celebrates the Chinese New Year. This year, all of the Parker Wuxi facilities combined efforts and held one large party with over 1000 employees, including my family! Not only was there a huge feast - the food just kept coming and coming all night long - but there was also lots of entertainment from the employees of each division! From singing to dancing, from fashion shows (with clothes made out of rubber flash and plastic bags!) to comedy acts, there was something for everyone! I will not lie, there were moments when I wondered if what I saw was appropriate for a work gathering (I'm pretty sure it would not have flown at my home division), but all of the employees had a marvelous time! There was even a "lucky draw" (i.e. raffle) and lots of prizes were given away! I actually won a bike! Two lucky people won the grand prize - a gold bar weighing 10 grams!

Oh, some of you may be wondering if we ate anything weird ... sure enough we did (at least to our standards). Of course the typical chicken feet dish was present, as it is at every Chinese dinner I've attended, however, I have yet to try it. So, the strangest thing we ate that night you ask? drum roll please ... pig blood! I will start out by saying I did not know it was pig blood when I tried it! And I hope to never eat it again. Besides the fact that it's pig BLOOD, I really didn't like the texture at all. And in case you are wondering how to make pig blood - you know, for the next time you slaughter a live pig and want to save the blood - I guess it is pretty easy. Just let the blood harden and then cut it into rectangular pieces and cook it!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the night!