Maya’s mom Kathy and the delicious outcome of our 2 day cooking spree

Having spent alot of time in Canada growing up, I know all about the Thanksgiving holiday and traditions, and really the only difference between Canada and the USA is that they happen a month apart, and the Americans get alot more holiday days than Canada’s measly 1 day off.

This year, I spent it with my roommate Maya and her extended family in Oakland. We started cooking Wednesday, the day before thanksgiving, at around 4 pm, for five hours, prepping all the meats, veggies, potatoes and toppings, and cooking four (different) pies. The day of thanksgiving, we arrived at Maya’s mom’s house at 1 pm to peel more potatoes, brine the turkey, reheat everything, and cool down all the bottles of wine and appertif. The entire meal was home cooked, and totaled a feast large enough to feed about 4 families even though there were only 8 of us. It was absolutely amazingly delicious, and I was uncomfortably full for the entire experience, from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday night when I fell asleep, paralyzed from the goodness in my tummy.

The day after Thanksgiving, affectionately called Black Friday, is really the first official day of the Christmas season, and while everyone takes the day off to pick up their christmas tree and enjoy time with the family, this day is famous for being the biggest shopping day of the year. And not only is it big, its dangerous, and chaotic. One Wal-Mart security guard was trampled to death after the opening of the store’s door, probably because of the 50 inch TV that had been reduced by $600 or $700 to only $300. I braved the masses with my friend Mike, and he walked away with a 40-inch flat screen tv for a few hundred dollars, and I finally got myself a mini netbook that is much more travel friendly than my 10 lb, 1 hr of battery life, 5 year old, outdated, 15-inch laptop for only $180. Cheap products and consumerism really take on a whole new meaning in the American christmas shopping season, and I’m just glad I didn’t get injured benefiting from the sales.