Evan woke us up bright and early on Thanksgiving morning,
but thankfully not as early as I had feared jet lag would. My sister made us all chocolate chip muffins
for breakfast…an old family treat that I hadn’t had since we were kids. Evan surely enjoyed them as well, though he
got a bit messier than the rest of us.
Chocolate on his happy face
My sister got to work right away getting the turkey in the
roaster and prepping all of the other food.
I helped a bit, but she did most of the work and did a great job
managing when and how to cook everything so it was all done at the right time.
The Thanksgiving meal this year was a feast of all our
family’s traditional favorites like turkey, stuffing, creamy (note this is not
creamed) corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, baked macaroni
and cheese, dinner rolls, and pumpkin or peach pie for dessert. (Our family also traditionally has canned
cranberry sauce, sliced nicely on a platter, but this poor can of tart
tastiness was forgotten in the cupboard until after the meal was over!) This year, however, we also had a bit of
Hawaiian influence in the meal, including taro rolls and Hawaiian beer to
drink. The taro rolls are almost like a
potato bread roll, yet they are purple and made with the locally grown taro
plant, and they tasted somewhat sweet. I
quite enjoyed them!
My sister is getting ready to move out of her house, so
she’s sold a lot of her furniture, thus we all dined on paper plates and sat
around an imaginary table in her kitchen for the meal. The upside was less dishes and no table to
set or clean up! As I also learned when
I celebrated Thanksgiving in Australia a few years ago, the warm and humid
climate puts a damper on my appetite.
When I made the big meal in Australia, I had so much left over since
everyone didn’t eat nearly as much as I was used to people eating. This year, it just meant that I didn’t have
to unbutton my pants after the meal and we had dinner for the next day already
sorted, plus my sister had enough to take some dinner plates in to fellow soldiers
who were on duty.
Running to get the ball...I still can't believe he can run
Playing ball with Tae
After the meal, we took Evan to a nearby field to kick
around a ball and get outside. We also
spent time going through the newspaper ads looking for the good Black Friday
deals, however we weren’t going on any shopping sprees unless it was for small
items we could fit in our suitcase!
Instead we did some online shopping on Black Friday and had items
shipped to my dad’s house, where we will all spend Christmas. I’m really excited that I’ll get to spend
both holidays with my sister and her kids this year, after not having spent the
past two holiday seasons with them!
We also started our sightseeing on Black Friday, as well as
got a taste of the famous yummy doughnut-like malasadas from Leonard’s bakery. Then, while most
people were crowding the stores, we were driving around Ford Island and
checking out Pearl Harbor. We saw the
USS Utah Memorial, and then drove over to the Pacific Aviation Museum. Thanks to my sister being military we were
able to visit these sites on Ford Island by car, rather than bus or boat,
saving us time and money. Plus, when it
started to downpour, the car was right there for refuge.
And downpour it did! The
lightning and thunder was pretty amazing too!
Sadly, the rain prevented us from going to see the USS Missouri
battleship, but we saw it from the car at least.
USS Utah Memorial
Evan and John in the Pacific Aviation Museum
"Look, it's a plane!"
"This looks like a good place to sit down and have a snack."
1 comment:
It was great to see you at AGU!
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