Saturday, November 24, 2012

My fifth thanksgiving in the US-part 1


We don't celebrate thanksgiving in Vietnam. I started adopting thanksgiving and its atmosphere since I came to the US in 2007.  There are much more important thoughts shared later, but first of all, I'd like to share a couple of my personal facts about thanksgiving after experiencing it for 5 years. Again they are personal so that they might not be applicable to other people. Thus don't get mad/upset if they are not true for you.

- I've had turkey three times during thanksgiving, and I've concluded that a roasted turkey leg (in carnivals/festivals) is much more tasty and yummy than Mr.Turkey.  I can finish a whole roasted turkey leg but I can barely finish a couple of bites of the roasted turkey despite how tasty the sauce is. Sorry Mr.Gobble Gobble!

- I cooked turkey once last year and I don't think I am patient enough to do it one more time. To me cooking turkey is similar to babysitting, requiring a lot of work and attention. We had to keep "entertaining" Mr.Turkey by basting him while hoping it's a right amount of sauce and time to make him happy so that he could serve us good food. Same as you do with a baby. You have to keep "entertaining" the baby while hoping that the baby is happy so that he/she could give us a good time by not screaming/crying

- After trying different Thanksgiving food, my most favorite Thanksgiving food is sweet potato casserole.  I always love sweet potatoes and I can have it anytime. I usually use a "lazy" recipe for sweet potato that is to microwave it for 5 minutes. I make fried sweet potato for Dan's dad sometimes when he is in town because he loves it. Other than that, I never try any other "recipe" for sweet potatoes.  However, last year my friend, Diane, brought her sweet potato casserole to the potluck in my apt and I found it really yummy and tasty in a different way from my "sweet potato." I got it again this year when Dan and I had a late lunch with his brother's family and I could not stop eating it. This dish will be def in my to-do list.

- In the past, my most favorite thing about Thanksgiving was that I had a long weekend to get some sleep back. I did not really care about what Thanksgiving was about, but knowing that I could sleep as much as I wanted after sleep deprived days as a result from school work was enough to make me happy. Sounds weird but in the past, whenever thanksgiving came, the first thing that came to my mind was a bed and long sleep.

Later on and now, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that I have a chance to get together with some friends. I remember that the 2nd thanksgiving back in Atlanta, one of my school friends invited people in town to come over to her apt for Thanksgiving dinner and it warmed me up. I currently do not care much about what i have for thanksgiving or whether I liked Thanksgiving food.  More importantly, it's a chance that we can share our laugh, stories, and thankful thoughts about what we value in life.  I used to argue that we do not need to wait for Thanksgiving  to think about valuable things in life. Instead, we should do it all the time.  So true!!!! However later I realized that it's more theoretical and ideal. There are many moments in life we tend to forget and appreciate what we have in life. In particular, when we are mad, upset, or when things go wrong, we keep blaming that life is unfair and our life is full of crap.  To me, Thanksgiving is another chance to remind us of what we should be thankful for and what we should appreciate in life. Knowing that there are many invaluable things in life always calms me down and makes me realize that others should be secondary.

- My most favorite joke this thanksgiving is "who is never hungry during thanksgiving." I raised this question during the meal with the family of Dan's brother. Beyond my expectation, his 7- year nephew responded very quickly in moments that it's turkey.  And again beyond my expectation, his reason is that we eat the Turkey so that the Turkey is not hungry. So cute and very innovative. I hope that you all are able to find the actual reason for why Mr.Gobble is never hungry during Thanksgiving.

- Shopping: I went with the flow- going to a mall  to get deals at midnight two years ago. I swore myself not to do it again after that experience. We went to the outlet mall at midnight and we stayed there till around 5a.m. Until now, my bf still cannot stop laughing at what I purchased after sacrificing 5 hours of sleep to beat the crowd and to patiently wait in a long line (for both trying on clothes and checking out) . Yup I ended up getting the only 10$ shirt for me and a 20$ jacket for my sister.

I don't know much about electronic stuff because I never shop for electronics on Black Friday.  However for clothes, I think having good deals on Black Friday is more about a perceived norm rather than what it actually is. You are still able to get deals but not all good deals happen on Black Friday. For example Anna Taylor has 50% off discounted items and full-priced items on days other than Black Friday. This Black Friday, it's only 40% off discounted items and 25% off full-priced items.  The Limited sometimes has 50% off discounted items but this black Friday, its 50% off full-priced items. However, again you still can get a good deal. For example, Levi's offers 40% with free shipping that doesn't always happen.  Also, today I got tennis shoes for me and my bf with reasonable prices at Tennis warehouse that I long wanted to have . My advice is to be alert and do not be too obsessed with shopping on Black Friday.

Speaking of clothes shopping, I prefer to shop on the weekend right before Thanksgiving. A lot of stores offer deals that weekend. During thanksgiving, the price is not much different regularly.  More importantly, I am able to find my size that I was not successfully able to do when I shopped during the crazy midnight of Black Friday.  Plus I hate competing against the crowd for clothes or waiting for a long line to just check out a 10$ shirt.

------Continued--------