[ Part of the RBJ Writing Collaboration for November 2008 ]

My Wife and I Hosted This Year

So, this year my wife and I hosted the Family Thanksgiving Dinner. We also hosted last year. My wife’s side of the family was mostly present. My niece, “Harvard Girl”, was able to fly home for Thanksgiving break and she came down. “Berkeley Girl”, my other niece, is an architect and she was too busy with a project she’s doing in Costa Rica, so she was unable to come. So it was basically my wife’s side which included her two sisters and their families. It was fun as usual. And, of course, my college sophomore son came down from UC Riverside.

A Little Night Music

I played piano early in the evening, before and during Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner music for the family. And during the prayer I played the slow movement from Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony”, such a beautiful, simple melody perfect for saying grace and giving thanks.

It had been raining here and there, throughout the day, and for some reason the grand piano sounded very nice, and a bit on the mellow side. Instruments made of fine wood, of course, are affected by the change of weather…

Family Drama

There was a bit of “family drama” going into this Thanksgiving holiday. But, come to think of it, I think everyone experiences some sort of family drama during the holiday season. It could be considered natural when you think about it. Things wouldn’t be exciting without a little drama in our lives, no?

More Ghost Stories

Anyway, a topic of conversation was about our “personal ghost stories”, again! Oh, by now I have quite a few.

My older son confessed that he thought he saw his grandpa (who passed away this year) walking past him while he was on a train! And my brother-in-law, while at a hotel in Pennsylvania, had finished taking a shower and he saw writing on the steamed mirror that said, “Same Time, Next Year”. Okay, now that freaked ME out!

My sis-in-law who lives up the street had some experiences to tell. Her Dad, my father-in-law, passed away this year in June… God rest his soul… and my sis-in-law has been experiencing strange phenomena at her house. And my father-in-law spent most of his time there… But, I had my ghost stories to tell too. I repeated my story about the vanishing woman at Starbucks (of all places) and my experience with Room 427!

But overall, Thanksgiving Day was a huge success, and a lot of fun. I felt sad that my sis-in-law from Santa Barbara had to leave early this morning, but my brother-in-law is a Computer and Robotics Engineer and has so much work to do.

Doing 100% Raw on Thanksgiving Day

I was the only raw vegan in the family Thanksgiving get-together! And, I helped out with shopping for last minute items, helped out in the kitchen, and was able to non-chalantly keep a low profile and not mention I am 100% raw vegan! Surprisingly, the topic of going 100% raw never came up! And I’m glad to my family members for that, and maybe they’ve been reading about me and respecting my uniqueness?

Anyway, here is a basic recap of what I ate yesterday. I’m sure my non-raw friends are wondering what I ate since I didn’t go for the standard Thanksgiving faire. But, I felt I had a wide variety of foods and I didn’t crave any of the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, pie, stuffings, etc…

Breakfast

• 1 cacao-banana smoothie
• 1 avocado
• 1 handful of olives

Lunch

• 1 Raw Pasta Dish - zucchini noodles made with a Spirooli Slicer, fresh basil, garlic, olives, minced lettuce, pine nuts, tomatoes with cold pressed olive oil and a pinch of celtic sea salt. (I luv this dish!)

First Dinner

• flax crackers with guacamole
• apple slices - made with Spirooli Slicer (by my brother-in-law)
• 1 large salad - various lettuce leaves, spinach, radicchio, arugula, frisee, chard, tomatoes, endive, artichoke hearts, green olives, cucumbers, and sun dried tomatoes with cold pressed oil and vinegar.

Second Dinner

• jicama slices with creamy garlic dip
• 1 Raw Pasta Dish - zucchini noodles made with a Spirooli Slicer, fresh basil, garlic, olives, minced lettuce, pine nuts, tomatoes with cold pressed olive oil and a pinch of celtic sea salt. (I luv this dish!)

I just noticed that an older entry of mine was stumbled upon and is giving me a few hits this morning in my webtracker. Thank you for the online love! That post featured a photo of Raw Vegan Sushi like the one above.

Yes, you can definitely boost your energy level by eating smaller meals throughout the day.

. . . .

So anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! To all my American friends out there, and to anyone celebrating just for fun!

And remember to pace yourselves…

I read somewhere (forgot the link, sorry) that the average American on “turkey day” eats approximately 2,750 calories for the Thanksgiving Dinner alone!

But, if there’s a way to start Thanksgiving earlier in the day and eat throughout without getting too full, you’ll have more energy to socialize, do things, and not fall asleep in front of the television watching football.

So, here are a few tips for eating on Thanksgiving Day:

• Eat Throughout The Day - Don’t starve yourself until you get to the Thanksgiving Dinner! It’s a good way to end up pigging out during the big Thanksgiving meal…. unless of course, that was your Thanksgiving intention all along.
• Watch The Coffee and Alcohol - These drinks have a way of dehydrating the body which could cause you to crave more food! Drink plenty of fresh, purified water at least 30 minutes before eating, which will curb your appetite. If you’re going to have alcohol, though, a little red wine is good for you. Better still, grapes will have the same benefical effects as red wine!
• Smaller Portions Will Get You Through - Consciously putting modest, smaller portions on your dinner plate will help keep you in check and psychologically make you feel like you’re actually eating more. Plus, it takes 20 minutes or more until the stomach tells you that it’s full. Piling food on the plate and doing this several times is a sure way to put on the pounds.
• Start Your Day Off With A Workout - Upon rising, get out and go for a brisk walk or run, or get all your chores done first thing to burn the calories early. Do whatever aerobic activity you normally do as your workout earlier in the day, before the big dinner.
• Be Sure To Eat Breakfast - Nothing too heavy, but make it a light breakfast to get the digestion system going and to jump start your day. Fruits are a good way to start Thanksgiving Day.
• Make A Conscious Effort To Avoid or Limit The Fatty Foods - Slow down. Pace yourself. This isn’t a race to get more food than the other guy, so eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly… just don’t overdo it and you’ll avoid that dreaded… FOOD COMA!

Good luck and have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving Dinner with family and friends!

And for raw fooders like myself, Kristen has some great ideas for a “raw” Thanksgiving Dinner!

In the kitchen yesterday afternoon, my youngest son badly cut his finger on a new mandoline slicer I bought from Linens and Things. He was trying it out and we hadn’t read the instructions and one thing led to another and he accidentally sliced his finger on the ultra-sharp blade.

I watched as he ran to the kitchen sink to rinse it under running water, and noticed a squirt of blood had pumped out of his finger and I knew this wasn’t your typical cut on the finger. Matter of fact it was bleeding quite a bit and after several paper towels soaked in blood and some drops of blood on the kitchen tiles, we quickly headed out the door to go to Urgent Care.

At Scripps Clinic’s Urgent Care Unit

Fortunately, it was very slow at the Urgent Care, so there was no real waiting. After filling out some paperwork a nurse wisked us into a room where they took my son’s weight, blood pressure, and body temperature. Then a moment later we were led back into one of the emergency rooms to have a doctor take a look at it.

Doctor checked my son’s finger to make sure there were no major capillaries or nerves severed and movement in his finger seemed to be good. After cleaning up the wound he numbed the finger with a shot of some localized anesthesia, and promptly worked on stitching up the cut. It looked pretty deep. And part of his fingernail was sliced too. He ended up with 4 stitches.

So, my son is fine now, and the doctor said he must refrain from any major activity until the stitches will be taken out 7 to 10 days from now. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse.

…isn’t much. Just a short 30 second test video I created at Animoto.com, using some random family photos.

Using Animoto is pretty easy. You basically upload photos from your computer or grab them on the web (from your Flickr account, for example), add music from the site’s collection of music, or upload your own, and you can transfer the finished product directly to YouTube!

Next up:

I’m going to try creating a slide show video using one of my original compositions and see how that goes…

Not too long ago I wrote an entry titled, Where’s Jordano?

WELL, THERE HE IS!!!

And all this time I thought something terrible had happened to him, or he had skipped the country or was now in witness protection!

[ Photo provided by Beatrice via Nathan Mills ]

The boys and I gave my wife white roses in a vase for Mother’s Day…

White Roses in the living room.

Last Friday, the family attended my youngest son’s Jr. ROTC Awards Banquet. And here are just a few pictures from that event:

The Boys just before leaving for the Jr. ROTC Awards Banquet

Cameron, Jordan and Kim

A Group Photo Opp

Receiving an award from the Lt. Colonel