Giving Double

Today is the day that America celebrates Thanksgiving. Tonight, I am thankful for having two wonderful families with whom to celebrate this special occasion. And lucky for me, I don't need to worry which family I go to when.

Because my own family works in the medical field, they're schedule to work every other holiday (for example, they will work on Thanksgiving day and they will be off on Christmas day). As a result, my mom celebrated Thanksgiving with her family on Wednesday. Instead of a traditional turkey for dinner, she served a delicious Cornish game hen, with stuffing, potatoes, and asparagus. (I'll leave it to the reader to ponder the irony of serving a traditionally English game bird for Thanksgiving, but no matter what, it was delicious)

For dessert, she served a mixture of Filipino desserts such as Macapuno pie, Puto, Gelatin, together with some traditional Thanksgiving desserts such as Pecan and Pumpkin pie, paired with fresh fruits mixed.

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Today, my husband and I went to his parents' house (my second family) to celebrate a more traditional Thanksgiving. My father-in-law made a delicious (and spicy) black bean soup. My mother-in-law served a traditional turkey for dinner (unfortunately, we arrived late so the turkey was already carved), with stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, corn bread and cranberry sauce. I brought Brussels sprouts sauteed with garlic and pancetta, and my sister-in-law brought pumpkin bread and biscuits. (I'm already getting full again just thinking about it).

As usual, the whole family was there. I was thrilled to see my 3 nephews and their cousins who were growing very fast. The dinner didn't start before the tradition of everyone at the table explaining what they are thankful for this year. Even my 2 1/2 year old nephews had to say something. We all find this somewhat entertaining, especially because my mother-in-law took this "tradition" from her favorite daytime soup opera. But she treats this very seriously and becomes emotional every time it's her turn to say what she is thankful for.

The T family Thanksgiving celebration continues with an array of wonderful desserts and variety of individual flavored coffees. It's like having your own barista.



Having two families to celebrate Thanksgiving means having twice the feast, twice the drama, twice the fun and twice the love. And that is something that I am thankful everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving!