turkey tunes II

thanksgiving ... well, it is kinda like chinese new year - it's a family reunion type holiday and it revolves around food and travel madness as ppl make their ways home by plane/train/car across the country. i'm not sure why it's called "dinner" though 'cos it typically begins around 3-4pm, probably 'cos it takes the entire morning and abit to cook the turkey. i remember the time we had christmas dinner at et's place one year and we had to wait till 9pm or something like that before we could sit down to eat. that was also the potluck dinner to which someone brought mashed potatoes in a green-tinted glass bowl ... but enough reminiscing and back to Dia de Accion de Gracias en Los Estados Unidos este ano.

thanksgiving break came at a pretty good time. i'd been slaving away on the PACU project for what seemed to be forever so it was great to have some time off and hang out with friends, chill out and shop - yes, shop! the day after thanksgiving is black friday so called because it's the biggest shopping day of the year and the day retailers make enough profit to come out of the red. i had all these great plans to wake up early to hit the malls with the crowds but i guess the titrophan (however u spell it!?) got the better of me after nick and amber's party. as usual, i forgot to bring my camera but hopefully i'll be able to get some pics of the massive spread which included turkey (duh!?), sweet potato caserole, pumpkin bread etc. etc. i took the easy way out and got a pecan pie from madhatters which i must say was muy rico!

thanksgiving began with the pilgrims who'd left england to in search of religious freedom and they celebrated the first thanksgiving meal at the end of the first harvest. many ppl from all over the world have made the US their home since then and it's really interesting how they have adopted and adapted this custom. on friday, we were invited to a thanksgiving meal at the home of one of our friends from the chinese christian fellowship that we joined this year. we had turkey (of course) but the stuffing was a glutinous rice/chestnut mix - how cool is that? and after dinner, they sang karaoke. unfortunately, we couldn't stick around for that 'cos duke was playing memphis.

and here are the pics we took along the cox mountain trail. it was a beautiful 2 hr walk ... and hopefully we managed to burn off a couple of calories as well!