Twas the night before Thanksgiving...

When my grandparents were still alive, we spent every Thanksgiving Eve eating Chinese food at a restaurant in New Orleans called Five Happiness.  Invariably the kids would fight over the meat on a stick that you rotate over the table top flame and rounds of shirley temples and roy rogers would be ordered with lots of maraschino cherries.  

These days my family no longer heads to the Five Happiness, but instead my cousin and his wife host a shrimp creole night on Thanksgiving Eve.  It is particularly special because they now live in the house where my grandparents lived.  This year they sent around the invite and included a picture of my cousin Zizi with my grandmother at what must have been a school Thanksgiving celebration (if you look closely at the picture you'll see that my grandmother is wearing a pilgrim hat).  

pilgrim grandmother and Indian cousin

This year I stayed in California (so no shrimp creole for me), but my husband and I upheld my family tradition by inviting over friends and eating Chinese take-out on the night before Thanksgiving.  I later talked to my parents and siblings (who spent the holiday in Houston) and realized that they ate Chinese food too.  Not sure how this tradition got started, but it is a fun way to stay connected through the years and across the miles. 

Happy Thanksgiving!