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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A Beautiful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is probably my favourite holiday of the year. No religion to worry about. Not that I'm anti-religious, but my husband is Jewish and I am Christian, and we celebrate holidays from both religions, which is all good, but so many holidays are either my tradition or his tradition. Thanksgiving is both. And it's all about the food. And family. And friends. I like all of those things.

This year we drove down to stay with my brother-in-law and his family in Philadelphia. They are the nearest relatives we have, geographically speaking, and most years my sister-in-law can't get away for very long as she is a physician and is working the holiday or on call. It's a 4-hour drive normally, though it was 6 hours driving down on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (could have been a lot worse). Since we were going down early, I brought pie fixings with me and my sister-in-law and I baked many many pies together Wednesday evening. The girls (my daughter Jessica, her cousin Rebecca who is the same age, and Aya, our Japanese exchange student) made mini pies using a sort of pie press. Between whole pies and mini pies, we had apple, cherry, pumpkin, blueberry, and pecan. Yum!
pie makers

Yum!
The day after Thanksgiving we drove into Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's house, the Federal Reserve, and the Mint. It was a beautiful day, Aya learned a lot of American history and we discovered how much we had forgotten or just not learned the first time around.
Independence Hall - scaffolding around the bell tower

kids in front of Independence Hall
 The day after Thanksgiving we have a traditional sushi dinner (It's traditional for our family, originating in a birthday dinner request of sushi many years ago). We get fresh fish from the wonderful market in downtown Philadelphia (actually, my brother- or sister-in-law get it) and then we make maki sushi. Turns out, Aya didn't eat sushi all that often in Tokyo and had never made it. We make sushi a little differently than they do in Japan, but it still tastes good.
rolling sushi
We even had a day to sit around and relax. Lots of leftovers to eat so we got a break from cooking too.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving and a lovely visit. I always enjoy seeing family, but it was good to get home after being away for 4 nights. We're settling back into the routine and now it's time to start gearing up for Christmas and Hanukkah. I'm trying hard to get gifts squared away early this year so I won't have to pay extra to send  packages extra fast so they arrive in time. Wish me luck. I probably need to send something to Aya's parents in Tokyo REALLY early. Any suggestions for a nice gift for someone I really don't know that is representative of our country? Anyone?

Best wishes of the season, and whichever holiday you choose to celebrate, or not!