A Tale of Two Thanksgivings

A Tale of Two Thanksgivings 

or 

How You Can Gain 9lbs in a Single Weekend If You Have Ukrainian Relatives :p

2014

My brother had just returned from a trip to India with lots of souvenirs, crazy stories, and a lingering stomachache. He brought his drone over for a test flight, which kept my dad, D, and the dog entertained. My mom and I drank wine. We had a Thanksgiving dinner with all the traditional dishes and then called it quits and sat around, talking about how much food we'd just eaten.

winter gardening

2015

This year we spent Thanksgiving with D's relatives in Washington. That meant instead of one special (holi)day of stuffing ourselves, it was a whole weekend of tasty gluttony. I think we've eaten enough to make it through the rest of the year food-free!!

There were blini with homemade strawberry jam for breakfast:

There were bowls and bowls of borsch for lunch:

There was plov with turkey for dinner:

There were all the usual little zakuski to go along with vodka:

Plus the shrimp and chips, chowder, and clam strips we shared at a restaurant on the beach:

Oh, and there was small matter of the actual Thanksgiving meal and all its leftovers!

I've tried lots of permutations of "No thanks, I'm full" in the Russian language, but so far none of them have ever prevented additional food from ending up on my plate anyways :p

The rest of the weekend was a mix of this and that: drinking tea at his sister's house, playing chess, hitting up the mall to see the Christmas decorations, watching a movie called билет на Vegas. You know your relatives are from Ukraine when you find yourself admiring a random mushroom your brother-in-law picked off a tree and brought home!

This part of Washington is pretty much strip mall after strip mall after strip mall...

...but at least it's not too far from the coastline.

This time we went together to see the mayak, lighthouse (маяк) and watch the ferry set sail.

frost!

The day we drove our stuffed selves back to Oregon started off like a real winter day (finally!!)...

... but it vanished once we got through Seattle. *sigh* Maybe there will be winter around here someday.

Okay, now to go burn some of those delicious calories off!


Did you celebrate Thanksgiving this year? Did you eat "just enough" or are you also guilty of 3+ pieces of pie? ;)