Thanksgiving

Celebrating Thanksgiving in the Chinese community is probably a little different from how other Americans celebrate it. The main reason being that it's a bit more inconvenient to gather an entire family together. If my parents, sister, and I were to actually fly to China for Thanksgiving one year and see the rest of our family, it would still be different from the traditional Thanksgiving because they don't celebrate the holiday in China... Anyways, back on topic. Instead, what we do for Thanksgiving is gather a bunch of Chinese families and throw a party (that usually takes place at Alyssa's house, lucky her!). The definition of an "Asian" party is a potluck. My parents spend about half the day preparing a couple presentable dishes and by about 6 o'clock we're out the door. At the actual party, everyone spends a couple hours being obnoxiously loud and eventually we drift off into our respective activities. The kids watch a movie or talk, the parents continue laughing really loudly, and the grandparents continue being adorable. This is pretty much the entire night. My favorite memory of Thanksgiving has to be from last year. Last year, for the first time in my entire life, I had turkey on Thanksgiving. It was quite a shock to walk through the door and see a TURKEY on the counter instead of fish, or duck, or shrimp. It was a nice surprise. We had turkey again this year, thanks to Alyssa's mom, and I hope this becomes some sort of a tradition. I really do enjoy the holiday and it doesn't bother me that I don't get to see the rest of my family because I see my parents having a great time with all their old friends and it's like a giant friend family. It's nice, I like it.