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Thanksgiving 2011 at the Minguses
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Tag Archives: thanksgiving
My Thanksgiving List for 2011
I thought Kyera and I would not make it out of 2010. Little did I know that 2011 would take the cake! It’s been a medically dramatic year for us both. Medical Issues always come with their twin, Medical Bills, but I’m thankful that we work for an organization that provides insurance.
Thank you, 2011, for your ups and downs, so far:
It only makes sense that I start my list with my hospital stay on my birthday! Kyera and I were in Orlando for Every Nation’s 2011 North American Conference, Dream, at Disney World when I landed in the ER with severe stomach pain. Our human resources director, Carolyn Foster, was my nurse/nanny/confidant/cheerleader for three days, giving up her time with her family, and missing out on almost all of the conference sessions because of me and my diverticulitis. Everyone needs a Carolyn in their life.
We played 10 things I’m thankful for and Jenga
This year, our first in Nashville, we were adopted by the Daswanis.
Inspired by our watching Julie and Julia, my friend made Bruschetta ala Julia Child
It’s always been an adventure for Kyera and I to be loved like family by dear friends throughout the years.
Grateful in 2009
I’m a fallen human who was destined to die until an afternoon in August of 1991 when my boss at KISS FM, Al Torres, asked me two questions that changed my life forever:
If you were to die today, where do you think you would go?
If you died and faced God, and He were to ask you why He should let you into His heaven, what would you tell Him?
My feeble attempts at logical answers revolved around me being a good person and not a murderer or thief, and that at best, being a practicing Roman Catholic, I’d end up in purgatory and hopefully would get prayed up to heaven with each rosary, mass, or prayer said on my behalf.
Thanksgiving (and Halloween) in the Philippines?
When my mom moved us — her and me — to the Philippines in 1980, Halloween and Thanksgiving were two holidays that I didn’t think I’d ever find celebrated outside of U.S. bases Clark and Subic. It just wasn’t heard of. I remember All Saint’s Day, November 1st, was the big deal.
Cemeteries on All Hallow's Eve in the Philippines
Families would trek to cemeteries on All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween), or All Saint’s Day, to clean and spruce up the graves of the dearly departed. Some in celebratory ways that included cards and mah-jong tiles for gambling, and an assortment of chips, softdrinks, and food for grilling. It was a tradition, a major event: visiting each cemetery where each long-dead and often unknown distant relative was laid to rest.
That was the highlight of my introduction to Halloween in the Philippines. It wasn’t celebrated. It was the day after that was.
Until a year or so later when I heard of an upscale neighborhood in the south of Metro Manila known as Ayala Alabang that had trick or treating for their residents.
I didn’t know what to think of this. . . anomaly. Rich kids in costumes going to rich kids’ houses celebrating a very American holiday.
I deemed myself too old at 12 to trick or treat and chalked off one of my favorite celebrations as a tradition in the Philippines deemed for its bourgeoisie, secretly wishing I lived in Ayala Alabang or at least had friends there to wear costumes with.
