Sigh, I guess...
maybe some sort of vaguely-actually-thanksgiving related thing is in order. We went up Thanksgiving day after the race to my aunt and uncle's (but I call her 'uncle', too, which causes some confusion) house in San Marino. Actually, first we went to my grandparents' in Pasadena, where we sat around for a while wishing we hadn't gotten ready so fast. However, on a side note, that house is so amazing. I want that house. Unfortunately I can't afford it, but I think my cousins (the rich financial consultant ones) might buy it someday, which is good. It started out being the gatekeeper's house (when the entire hill above their house was one giant property), and they've expanded it over the years. It's got a basement you enter into through a tiny door with a little iron gated room in it and everything. It's so cool.
Anyway, as I was saying. At my aunt and uncle's there was the obligatory kiss hello to everyone in the room (all thirty or so of them). The cheek-kiss started because one branch of the family is from Argentina, and it kind of caught on. It's kind of awkward when I have to say hi or bye to my aloof male cousins, though, because I barely talk to them, making a kiss and hug really weird. Sometimes I avoid greeting my cousins altogether because I figure most of them don't really want to be hugging me. (I'm not really close with most of them, though I like all of them, because no one's my age, plus I'm really shy at family functions so I don't talk to many people unless I'm approached.) We milled around for a while and then finally sat down to eat. I just found out that the official age for moving from the kids' to the adults' table(s) is 21, even though one of my cousins has been sitting there since she was 12. I really would rather be at the kids' table (they have more interesting conversation), but I had no choice. Someone makes a seating arrangement every year, and the name tags were written by yours truly over ten years ago after I took a calligraphy class in summerschool. The napkin rings were authentic antique Egyptian toe rings (!) that my grandmother bought from a museum shop 50 years ago. (They're big rings that fit over your big toe, with a bar that goes under the rest of your toes, and were worn by male dancers. They're really cool looking, big and round and kinda Thai-looking.) We also get ornaments every year from my grandmother. This year the girls got shoes and the boys got elephants.
Dinner was good. PS--I prefer non-canned cranberry sauce...the canned stuff tastes like metal. My half-greek-cousins' grandmother makes really really good cranberry stuff with orange peel bits in it. mmmmMMMmm. I always try to take only a tiny bit of everything, but there were so many things to get it turned out to be a lot anyway. Turkey, mashed potatos, gravy, yams, peas with pearl onions, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mushroom casserole...it all makes for a very colorful plate.
My uncle gave the traditional half-drunk toast about how lucky our family is, and then I talked to Laura about anthropology and archaeology. After dinner my mom made us play The Newlywed Game with couples, siblings, and parent-children. It was funny. I learned that the first thing that Ramiro found attractive about my cousin Gabi (whose son Sebastian is now 1 year old and soo cute) was that she knew what brie cheese was. How sweet is that?
We spent the night at my grandparents' house (Kina and I slept in the guest bedroom attached to the garage) and the next morning I woke up bright and early to go face the crowds. I came out empty-handed but my dad got everything we needed to network my grandparents' computers and printer. Later that day I got to ride on my cousin's Razor-brand mini-motorbike-style-electric-scooter (like a mini vespa) and then we all went to see Harry Potter in a really big, nice, and comfortable theater. Then we got frozen yogurt (me: chocolate with raspberries mixed in), wandered down Colorado Blvd, and headed home. Went out dancing, successfully avoided a certain person about half the time, danced with the amazing DJ Peter (because Emi's friends made him ask me), went to Denny's, got home, crashed. Woke up, got paid 40 dollars to go to my grandparents' beach house to let in the people who were delivering their new bedframe. Felt useful because I replaced the batteries in their smoke detectors (which had been beepfully complaining the whole time). It was gorgeous in Dana Point, too...the harbor was clear, the sky blue, very very warm, cool breeze...nice.
So that's been my Thanksgiving weekend so far. I have a lot I'd still like to get done, so let's hope that can still happen.
I am so sad right now because we don't have any thanksgiving leftovers at home. :( However, I have been eating pumpkin pie for every meal, and that's okay, because any negative health effects are being countered by the immense sense of self-satisfaction derived from knowing that I made it myself.
Uh huh.
Anyway, as I was saying. At my aunt and uncle's there was the obligatory kiss hello to everyone in the room (all thirty or so of them). The cheek-kiss started because one branch of the family is from Argentina, and it kind of caught on. It's kind of awkward when I have to say hi or bye to my aloof male cousins, though, because I barely talk to them, making a kiss and hug really weird. Sometimes I avoid greeting my cousins altogether because I figure most of them don't really want to be hugging me. (I'm not really close with most of them, though I like all of them, because no one's my age, plus I'm really shy at family functions so I don't talk to many people unless I'm approached.) We milled around for a while and then finally sat down to eat. I just found out that the official age for moving from the kids' to the adults' table(s) is 21, even though one of my cousins has been sitting there since she was 12. I really would rather be at the kids' table (they have more interesting conversation), but I had no choice. Someone makes a seating arrangement every year, and the name tags were written by yours truly over ten years ago after I took a calligraphy class in summerschool. The napkin rings were authentic antique Egyptian toe rings (!) that my grandmother bought from a museum shop 50 years ago. (They're big rings that fit over your big toe, with a bar that goes under the rest of your toes, and were worn by male dancers. They're really cool looking, big and round and kinda Thai-looking.) We also get ornaments every year from my grandmother. This year the girls got shoes and the boys got elephants.
Dinner was good. PS--I prefer non-canned cranberry sauce...the canned stuff tastes like metal. My half-greek-cousins' grandmother makes really really good cranberry stuff with orange peel bits in it. mmmmMMMmm. I always try to take only a tiny bit of everything, but there were so many things to get it turned out to be a lot anyway. Turkey, mashed potatos, gravy, yams, peas with pearl onions, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mushroom casserole...it all makes for a very colorful plate.
My uncle gave the traditional half-drunk toast about how lucky our family is, and then I talked to Laura about anthropology and archaeology. After dinner my mom made us play The Newlywed Game with couples, siblings, and parent-children. It was funny. I learned that the first thing that Ramiro found attractive about my cousin Gabi (whose son Sebastian is now 1 year old and soo cute) was that she knew what brie cheese was. How sweet is that?
We spent the night at my grandparents' house (Kina and I slept in the guest bedroom attached to the garage) and the next morning I woke up bright and early to go face the crowds. I came out empty-handed but my dad got everything we needed to network my grandparents' computers and printer. Later that day I got to ride on my cousin's Razor-brand mini-motorbike-style-electric-scooter (like a mini vespa) and then we all went to see Harry Potter in a really big, nice, and comfortable theater. Then we got frozen yogurt (me: chocolate with raspberries mixed in), wandered down Colorado Blvd, and headed home. Went out dancing, successfully avoided a certain person about half the time, danced with the amazing DJ Peter (because Emi's friends made him ask me), went to Denny's, got home, crashed. Woke up, got paid 40 dollars to go to my grandparents' beach house to let in the people who were delivering their new bedframe. Felt useful because I replaced the batteries in their smoke detectors (which had been beepfully complaining the whole time). It was gorgeous in Dana Point, too...the harbor was clear, the sky blue, very very warm, cool breeze...nice.
So that's been my Thanksgiving weekend so far. I have a lot I'd still like to get done, so let's hope that can still happen.
I am so sad right now because we don't have any thanksgiving leftovers at home. :( However, I have been eating pumpkin pie for every meal, and that's okay, because any negative health effects are being countered by the immense sense of self-satisfaction derived from knowing that I made it myself.
Uh huh.
posted by Sassafrassy at 4:07 PM
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