Happy Late Thanksgiving! I hope everybody had a great holiday. If you got the chance to spend time with family and friends, that’s awesome. If you got the chance to spend time by yourself to relax, that’s awesome. I fortunately had the chance to go back home and spend time with family and friends. I didn’t get a chance to sit down and write a post on Thanksgiving which is why I’m writing one now. This is a very casual post so grab your favorite snack or drink and enjoy the read 🙂
Doing new things over Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving was actually pretty interesting because my family and I did a lot of new things. We cooked a Thanksgiving dinner that involved 3 different type of cuisines, did a new hike on Black Friday, and went to a winery over the weekend. I also got a chance to watch an Asian movie with my Mom for the first time. I didn’t really plan all these things in advance which was the surprising thing. No offense to my parents, but they’re pretty boring people so I’m usually sitting around in the house since they never want to go outside
That Triple Cuisine Dinner
Aside from turkey, my Thanksgivings are usually filled with Asian dishes. There’s usually Canto roast duck, Canto bbq pork, and vegetable stir fry. For this Thanksgiving, Instead of roast duck and pork , they made Chinese sausage and sweet potato. My mom included some ceviche because she was testing out new recipes and it also served as the vegetables for our dinner. Somehow, no vegetables were prepared for dinner. We cut up some cucumbers last minute but boy if we had no vegetables, I would’ve had a very tough time in the restroom haha. Overall, I didn’t complain about the food since I didn’t have to cook. All I had to do was bring gravy, cranberry sauce, and a dessert. I played my useless and useful role as a hungry son quite well if I may say.
Intense Hiking and Almost Drinking Wine Instead of Intense Shopping
Instead of doing Black Friday shopping, we decided to hike in Runyon Canyon Park on Black Friday and check out some wineries in Temecula over the weekend. Usually, my parents never go to LA to hike because it’s a long drive and traffic can get really bad. They also just like to stay in the house. I chose Runyon Park because I had been there before but not with my parents. It has super duper nice views of the city and it’s a pretty flexible hike (they have trails ranging from 1 to 3.3 miles). If you ever visit LA and want to get a nice hike in, go here! Since it’s so popular, you might even see celebrities here.
It took us about 3 hours to complete…mostly because I got lost taking them along the 3.3 mile route that I had never done before. The weather and the beautiful views made up for it though :).
The next day, we went to the wineries in Temecula and almost drank wine. My parents wanted to take me to some of the wineries in Temecula, which is 1.5 hrs away from where we lived. Now that’s okay for me since I drove 8+ hours to get back to California for the holidays. What wasn’t okay was getting there and then realizing that the tasting rooms closed early…ugh! The only good thing that came out of this was I got to eat as many unpicked grapes as I wanted. I don’t know if that’s allowed but not only were other people doing it..I was never told off by the guards.
Watching Asian Movies with my Mom
Whenever I visit my parents, I usually have a movie night with them. They enjoy watching movies, particularly free movies or Disney movies. My Dad passed on watching a movie but my Mom was down. I thought this would be a great opportunity to watch a movie that had Chinese as the main language since Chinese is my Mom’s native language.
I ended up choosing You Are the Apple of My Eye, which was a movie I watched back in 2012 in a Chinese learning bootcamp I attended in Taiwan. I absolutely loved the movie and the soundtrack, but I had forgotten how crude the movie was. There were scenes of guys jacking off and watching porn…I was hugging my damn couch pillow so hard trying not to feel awkward. Thankfully my mom didn’t say anything.
She told me before watching the movie that she had actually read the novels the movie was based off of. I thought that was so cool because it was like a chance for her to watch something she read about when she was a teenager. We ended up talking for like an hour afterwards about the movie, the books, and her childhood. I think this might have been like the first casual conversation I had with my Mom regarding her childhood. Looking back, I’m incredibly thankful that I had this conversation because I feel like I’m getting to know my Mom more.
What I’m Thankful for
I am thankful for many things, but one thing that I’ve really been particularly thankful for this year has been my health. I am just so surprised how lucky I am to be alive and have decent health. There have been times where I thought – “how the hell am I still able to function properly as a human?”. I over stress a lot, which has given me chronic headaches. I’ve gotten terrible sleep over the past year. I still have stomach problems (although it’s way better than it was 3 years ago). Yet, I’m still able to work out, go play sports, visit family, and do all these new things like exploring a new area of town or having time to start my own blog.
I know I’m not that old, but I am getting older. Health has become a big priority for me. It wasn’t when I was growing up but now I’m educating myself on how to take better care of myself. It’s been a tough journey because I’ve had to uproot bad habits and put in the work and discipline to cement new ones. Whether it’s eating healthy or deciding to give up financial security for mental health healing, I am making sure that I can stay as healthy as I can to continue spending quality time with friends and family and seek out new experiences. New experiences can give rise to interesting stories, which is what this blog is all about.
Thanks for reading. As always,
Be Confident. Stay Curious.
