(written 12/3/13 but time-bombed for 11/28)

I’ve been hiding behind the excuse of “I’m Asian, I didn’t grow up with a American Thanksgiving tradition” to skate out of massive cooking, cleaning, guests. I do want to do it when Allie’s older, and have family over, but I don’t want to chase around (or chase away from the hot stove) a toddler right now while trying to get lots of done, and our house is really to small at this point to host anything meaningful. When I was growing up, my parents and relatives, which included family-friends, had used American holidays as an excuse to get together for the family just for dinners, but it was always Chinese food (usually potlock), and that was fine by us. I’d like Allie to have those big gatherings to look forward to.

This year, Thanksgiving was very low-key. My mom didn’t know when my grandmother would be available, but turned out that she was available Thanksgiving morning, so my parents picked her up and came over early. Mr. W and I didn’t prepare anything, since it was also up-in-the-air until fairly last-minute whether my mom was getting the flu (turned out to be seasonal allergies), so we figured we’d just try to get into Claim Jumper Restaurant across the street at their opening time of 11am. My parents and grandma got to our house around 9:30 a.m., and the stepkidlet woke up and joined us in the living room around 10:00 a.m. I think she was expecting a traditional Thanksgiving gathering of some sort, so when we told her we were just going to go across the street at 11am for an early lunch, she was very unhappy with us. She said she didn’t have enough time to get ready, and that since we didn’t tell her early enough, she must not have been invited. She ended up going out with her boyfriend and didn’t return the entire rest of the 4-day holiday weekend. I did go in her room after my parents left, soon after lunch, and apologize for not telling her early enough, and explained that not only did we not plan anything, but that we never know when/if she was going to be around, since she may or may not even come home for arbitrary days in a row. We agreed that I’d let her know about upcoming significant-event plans whenever I had them, even if that meant waking her up early (which I never do) to give her enough time to get ready, and she’ll just decline if she’s already got plans (which she doesn’t tell us about ahead of time, either). That’s the only workaround I could think of for a noncommittal busy young adult.

So here’s a photo of us at Claim Jumper.

After Allie’s nap, the three of us went to a park with a nice kiddie playground and Allie got to play until a bit after the sun set and we could hardly see each other anymore. She was happy and had a great time, and to this day still asks to go to the “new park.”