Cheung Family Thanksgiving

We just had our first round of Thanksgiving dinner today. Soy Sauce Chicken, Roast Duck, some veggies, some soup, a half a squash stuck into the microwave with butter and sugar and Grace made Sticky rice. I made them take a picture of the family (well most of it) and the food (well most of it. Then we all (well most of us) said the Our father, and part of what they said for grace at Groton for a prayer, holding hands and heads bowed, because it's not really a holiday if there isn't an Awkward prayer that makes at least part of the family slightly uncomfortable. And I was always uncomfortable with those moments as a kid, not knowing if I was Buddhist or something else, and that Awkwardness is something important to pass on to the next generation. We only had 5 minutes of hectic confusion, and yelling instead of probably what would have been a whole day of that, had we tried to cook a Turkey. And really only in those five minutes of rushing and chopping and screaming did I get a sense of the true essence of what a Holiday feels like. Because that little adrenaline rush and chaotic rushing of plates, food, and cutlery (Chopsticks in our case) is the same feeling I had at my Gandmother's and Grandfather's House at Christmas, except sustained over days, and with that feeling came the feelings that went with it, of togetherness, playing with lots of cousins and meeting Aunts and Uncles and all of that Family sort of thing. But it makes sense too that our family has the five minute version in this day and age.
Well we are to watch a movie soon and then on to the second round of Thanksgiving dinner I think.