Fun Monday 11.06.07

It has been awhile since I participated in a Fun Monday, so I decided to go with this one, which is being hosted by Deborah who is not to be confused with Debs.

I want to hear about or see a holiday tradition, recipe or event. It can be any holiday you like or that is special to your family. With Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays coming up, those would be especially apt, but anything that is special for your family is fine. If you have pictures - it's a bonus! Whether it's your Mom's famous stuffing recipe, going caroling on Christmas Eve, Diwali dances, or even the inevitability of Great Aunt Polly having one too many brandies and knocking over the Christmas tree - I want to hear about it!!!

Since the blog world is so global this might be a learning experience too - exposing us to other cultures and traditions - something I always welcome!

Since Debs is posting basically how we spend our holiday, I am going to post about how I spent the holidays with my parents.

First the Menu. It is my father, not my mother, who is the cook of the house. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner were the same mix of both traditional American, and some Asian elements.

>Roast Turkey with stuffing AND, not or;

>Glazed Ham with pineapple;

>yams;

>cranberry sauce;

>home made egg rolls. I know they are home made because as a child, I had to help roll them up. Usually a mixture of ground beef, and peas;

>Pancit Canton. This was basically a noodle dish with pork, shrimp, and chicken;

>Singapore Mai Fun, which is a spicy Rice Stick dish;

>Jumbo Shrimp Tempura, or Fried Battered Shrimp;

>Fried Rice with egg, pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, you name it.

Needless to say, we got full, and leftovers were plentiful. Grace was said at both meals. Even the pets got their fill. Wine was the drink of choice, any wine.

On Thanksgiving, the only other activity consisted of watching (or in my high school days, playing) football.

On Christmas, the day started out with Midnight Mass, some sleep, and the gift phase, followed by a big breakfast, and then the feast described above.

Special note on the gift phase:

My birthday is VERY close to Christmas. With this fact in mind, a family holiday tradition was called "Let's Screw Over Robocop and combine gifts and cards." This was not really the intention, but it was funny to call it that. Either Christmas, or Birthday Cards were modified neatly to include the other event. Birthday and Christmas gift wrap was interchanged. Not a problem now, but as a child, it was alittle frustrating**LOL**

Well, that's it. I hope someday to travel back home, and do this again with my parent, if I could only get those holidays off. I am not one of the Warden's pets, so I cannot see this happening in the near future.

Enjoy!