It is October...
October...
And I just celebrated Thanksgiving. It is before Halloween. Where am I? I am stuffed. I am happy. I am grateful. But I think most of all I am just confused.
So Canadian Thanksgiving is on Monday, October 13th or is celebrated on Sunday the 12th. No one really knows, but you do get Monday, October the 13th off for the holiday. It is up to your friends and family to pick the day to gather, celebrate, eat and be grateful.
For this Canadian Thanksgiving, I was even more grateful because I was invited to two Thanksgiving dinners. They were on the same night, so I had to pick, but being a new kid in a new town, being invited into someone's home for Thanksgiving day is huge. Especially in Canadian (reference blog about Making Friends).
So one was to my coworker Tara's place with her GF and friends for a Mustache feast (everyone had to wear mustaches) - hilarious. And the other was to my friend Mark's place, to his parent's condo about an hour from Vancouver.
I opted for the meal with Mark's family and boy was it fun!!!
Mark picks me up and allows me to stop to pick up some flowers for his folks. Then we drive out to Langley (think from SF to Concord) to his parent's condo. His parent's moved out here a few years ago from the Toronto area to be closer to their two kids (Mark and Tricia). Trust me - their kids are that cool, that nice, that fun, that thoughtful - I would move closer to them too.
Mark's dad, Murray tours us around the condo and showing us some of his paintings and creative art from a class he is taking. (he is really good!) He appreciated my enthusiasm about it all because his daughter Trish (an artist - www.triciaaviss.com) always has some feedback for him. Murray is nice enough to make me feel at home by putting me to work (ie putting the flowers in a vase, dishing up snacks, etc).
Soon Mark's mom comes home from work to wrap up the meal that had been so far prepared by Murray (his first time doing it on his own, I suppose). She is relieved that the house is not burnt down, but really the apartment smelled wonderful and just like Thanksgiving.
Soon Mark's sister, Trish and her husband Sean arrive. This city is absolutely too small. Two weeks before when Lisa Susan was in visiting we went to a thing called Portobello West - it happens the last Sunday of the month and a place for local artists and designers to sell their goods. So I remember checking out this stand and thinking it was funny for a la
rge bald man to sell and paint cute bunnies and things, but thought - hey, it is Canada! Turns out the big bald guy was Sean selling Trish's paintings (she had gone for a walk or something) SMALL WORLD!!So the food prep continues and eventually we all sit down to a wonderful, wonderful meal. I am one of the few at this table who is eating the gravy, which is funny cause so far all I have seen is that Canadians love gravy on everything, especially french fries (look up Poutine).... mmmm... (Grace - you know what I am talking about!) It is everything just like at home - Turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes... mmmm.... so good!
After the wonderful meal they pull out the games - at this household it is Mexican Train! Which I became the resident expert at playing while being stationed at my Aunt Barbara and Aunt Cathy's in Bend, OR during the wait for the work permit... They were a competitive bunch. Funny as all heck. But competitive. We laughed a ton - like to tears laughed. Mark has horrible pictures of Trish and I absolutely losing it after his mom is sweetly inquiring about Mark 'playing with is little Mii.' (Mark had been talking about creating a Mii character 
on my Wii, so it was totally innocent, but turns out she is known for these innocent innuendos). Seriously. It was like being home with my own family. It was awesome! We played maybe 5 rounds (which I won 3 of them!?) I swear they didn't let me win - I just had mad skills. :)After all the laughter, we pack up left overs and start the drive home. It was after midnight when we left. I was so full, so happy, so satisfied, so grateful... I dosed in and out of consciousness on the drive home. Mark dropped me off, I put my yummy leftovers in the fridge and climbed into bed feeling quite content.
