I usually don't like Thanksgiving b/c my mom's (filipino) and dad's (swedish) sides of the family are always pressuring Joy and I to go to *their* Thanksgiving dinner and to spend more time w/ them than the other side of the family. This year, my dad and his family went to Tahoe for Thanksgiving weekend, so I was spared the bitter, strenuous Thanksgiving I've always known and had a (mostly) chill, drunken time at my mom's house in El Sobrante this year. Aaron (making his Thanksgiving debut w/ either side of my family) and I got to my mom's house around 3pm b/c I had to bake acorn squash and make cranberry sauce, but also b/c my mom and grandma always say dinner will be at 6pm, but actually eat much earlier than that, usually. This year, b/c the festivities were at mom's house, we couldn't start eating until grandma came, and since she didn't come until 6-on-the-dot, you can imagine how much we all had to drink before actually sitting down to dinner... and unlike Kati's New Zealander's, we flips don't hold liquor *that* well.
It was an awesome meal. I think Aaron's first plateful only consisted of lumpia, which he ate so much of, he didn't have room for much traditional Thanksgiving food after that. That's my boy! You know, until I was much older, I didn't realize that lumpia, pansit and adobo *weren't* served at most people's Thanksgiving dinners. Although, last night, I went to a late Thanksgiving dinner at Kim Gibson's mom's house, who is Thai, and had some *awesome* thai-style Thanksgiving. I love multi-culturalism and how Americans incorporate their heritage into their family Thanksgivings.
Check out pictures of my Filipino Thanksgiving
Posted by Kristina at November 29, 2003 01:10 PM