Thanksgiving!

This is my favourite holiday. Lots of good food, no gift giving pressure. This year was special since D and Julie brought the kids to Silicon Valley. They spent a total of 10 days with Mei's family and reports are that the kids mostly all got along! I was up only for the major feasting, but it was fun to see D, Julie, Austin and Mari so soon after having just visited them. This year's usual turkey blow-out at Gugu and Al's was supplemented by a surprise party for D's 40th birthday, coordinated by Julie, Baldwin and hosted by the 3's (Yvonne and Ralph). The Da's (Marjorie and Dah Yu) and their family were all their, which was nice because they will all be at Ching and Grace's for Thanksgiving. Food consisted of delicious meaty ribs, ducks (2 of them), Da Bo Mu's (Marjorie) spring rolls (which I usually miss because I don't visit during Chinese New Year, so I ate a lot of these), and of course cake. Julie requested comic strips for D as gifts and many people contributed very creative strips.

The big turkey day started with a ballet class with Gugu. We figured we would need the extra calorie burn. In the afternoon, I went over to Mei's and hung out for a bit, then headed over to Baldwin's with D and hung out some more. There were 26 people at dinner, including an Iranian couple (who have been to previous Thanksgivings) with each spouse's brother, some relatives of Al's, various other graduate and former graduate students who have been attending for years, plus the usual relatives. We had potatoes of all kinds (yams, mashed, scalloped, Stephen's roasted), some token veggies (peas, salads), and stuffing (with pork and without) to go with the juicy turkeys (2 of them). Desserts included the usual apple and pumpkin pie, but my favourite was Edie's cranberry cake and her chocolate mini muffins with secret zucchini inside.

On Friday, I headed over to Mei's again and went on some shopping errands with them. The mall parking was crazy busy and we ended up only spending about an hour inside after all that but I did get some ideas for Xmas gifts. Mei and Stephen made a delicious 'toad in the hole' dinner with more roasted potatoes. Toad in the hole is basically sausage with yorkshire pudding served with onion gravy. Delish!! In the evening, there was another surprise for D. Julie had arranged for all the Cheng cousins to play Bocce at a place in Los Gatos. D is pretty easy going so it wasn't hard to get him to go along with whatever crazy scheme Julie and Mei were dreaming up. Once we got to the courts, the cousins were all there and we had a great time. It was such a blast to hang out with the cousins without any kid responsibilities. I'm not sure when was the last time that happened.

D and Julie and kids were flying home on Saturday so I hung out with them in the morning to see them off. Then I headed to San Francisco where I'd planned lunch with my 'city' friends Annette, Deborah and Tegan. We ate at Bar Tartine and the food was delicious. I had a french toast with berries along with home smoked bacon. I loved catching up with everyone although the time was short. I had to hit the road for the long drive home. A relatively short trip, but relaxing and fun, just perfect!