Thanksgiving weekend

I guess we survived our first Thanksgiving.. And so, what are the impressions of this day, that magically turns into a four day weekend? It was nice. It's a little bit like a very condensed Christmas, with lots of food and family, but without presents and perhaps as a result - slightly less pressure. (But that could also be cause we didn't actually have to organise anything.) We were picked up in Berkeley and driven to Fremont in the afternoon, and eating begun as soon as we stepped through the door of Kim's aunt's place. Eating then continued, mixed up with introductions to the extended family that had gathered and some drinking. So you drink and eat and talk for a good few hours, and then they bring out the turkey and potatoes etc. and you eat a bit more, and yet a bit more. (I'll have to blame all the eating for not taking that many photos during the evening.)

I'm not entirely sure what traditionally is meant to happen after that, but I'm sure what we experienced isn't entirely part of the tradition. After turkey, but before the pies, we all went out to the garden to watch some of Kim's cousins fire dance! I didn't manage to get any good pictures of this, sadly, but it's basically this, though they were also using some kind of staffs with the ends on fire. One of the cousins got his trousers on fire, and I'm still not entirely sure if it was on purpose or not. It didn't stop him though.

After fire dance we had to have pies (pecan, pumpkin and apple) and more talking until slowly people started leaving.

Friday after Thanksgiving apparently is when Christmas season starts and people swamp the malls. Partly, I guess, cause they don't have to work, and also cause there are massive sales. Saw pictures in the NY Times, and it looked absolutely manic, people going straight from dinner to queue. Ant and I went for a walk in the Berkeley hills instead. Such a clear day that you could see the Golden Gate!

Saturday passed without much happening and then Sunday we went for dim sum in San Francisco and then to the Legion of Honor, an art museum. It's a pretty small museum that can be covered in a couple of hours (not including coffee break), but it's got a sweet little mix of big name paintings, French 18th century castle interiors, and Rodin sculptures. Apparently it has a really pretty park too, but it was raining too much. And I think we were all pretty arted out by the end of it anyway.

Now, new week. Ant's working hard, getting through his last two weeks of term and I'm going to DC on Sunday!