Thanksgiving Excitement

"Baba! I want to sleep by myself on Thanksgiving!" proclaimed Noah.
"Why? because Gong Gong is coming?"
"Yeah."
That is the only difference between Thanksgiving and a regular day off. So it must be that Noah doesn't want Gong Gong to know that he still sleeps with Baba.

The kids are pretty excited that their grandfather will be visiting. It makes Thanksgiving feel like a real holiday.

I was never that into Thanksgiving. Which is why we aren't going to be cooking a Turkey. But Grace will probably be baking a Chicken. And whenever I smell baking in the house I am reminded of Christmases in Philadelphia.

"That's  how white people cook." Grace would say when I mention this. They say that smell is what triggers memory the most of all the senses. Thinking about it, I realized that even though my mother often cooked in Philadelphia, she didn't bake much at all when we were in Boston. In fact most of her dishes were Chinese ones. So to me baking = holiday. And not only that. Baking=childhood memories of real holidays surrounded by family. When family is usually just you and your mom, there is a sense of safety and power when you are with a large group of people tied together by blood or at least marriage.

I guess for Noah, there is the added stress of keeping a reputation of independence in front of his grandfather.