Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day here in America and it is a huge thing. Hundreds of thousands of turkeys are roasted all across the country and as much families come together to celebrate and give thanks for a multitude of things: that in spite of the world wide recession, everyone is well and able to come together as a unit. I have family here, members of which I visit only once a year. This year, I consider myself lucky; I see them for a second time and in this most revered of occasions.

So we gathered together over a gigantic turkey that can maybe feed dozens of villages in Ethiopia. But guess what, like in all Filipino households, the superstar of the buffet is never the bird but dishes that somehow bring us all closer to the home country. It is a four-day weekend so everyone was at work in the kitchen whipping up the best of home: kare kare with bagoong, callos, dinuguan, pancit molo, pancit, fresh lumpia, along with all the rest of the continental stuff lined up on the dinner table.

The party started at noon and ended up late into the night with people--friends, family, neighbors, ex and current partners, high school buddies, coming in and out of the house throughout the day. People eat, chat, laugh, and then eat again until they grow food babies in their tummies and until it hurts to even just move. We all survived it, thank heavens, with half of that mammoth turkey still around for the eating.

Today, the day after that eating tournament is Black Friday--christened so because it is the biggest retail sale event of the year. Apparently, people have been lined up outside stores since 12 midnight for a chance at grabbing merchandise at practically give-away prices. My sister says, "Most of the shoppers are pinoys, you'll see." And so being the pinoys that we are, we went at 11 am to the mall and promptly got the shock of our lives. Droves; no, throngs; no, crowds; no, mobs of shoppers were stampeding through the stores. I had ONE pair of jeans on hand and had to line up at the cash register for 30 minutes. So, automatically, that pair had escalated in value! And I had no choice but to run with the crowd because this is my last day--I leave for Manila tomorrow.

THe highlight of my day was going to Target, which is my mother ship! I bought a portable oil-filled heater for Maverick's room, Jonas brothers shirts for Pippi and Mouse, season 3 Avatar cartoons for Bidi, and a Twilight shirt for Belli, which she will adore, black kitchen towels, and black, pure Irish linen dinner napkins.

I feel totally devastated about leaving Maverick here and the rest of my family, but life does go on and I have to go back. The small kids continue to grapple with the fact that their two older sisters study in different continents--they can't quite grasp it. I have run out of explanations, even to myself. When I see how lonely it gets at night for Maverick here in L.A. and Kitty over in Sydney, when their days at school are done and they set out for home, I feel like hauling them back home. They don't have the luxury of dinner being ready upon their arrival, they have to cook, clean up after themselves, do the laundry, do the groceries, pay the bills--all these while chasing deadlines, making ends meet on a tight allowance, and fighting the homesickness that I'm sure creeps up on them from time to time.

It builds character, I keep reminding myself. But whose? For what reason? And at what price? I raised them knowing that one day, they will have to leave home and strike out on their own once they reach University age. But so far, I think I am the one who has suffered most. I miss them terribly and constantly and painfully.

Whenever we hit bumps in our lives, I keep reminding them that the mind is a powerful thing, that we must use it to sustain ourselves. But now I think it is more than that; it is faith, too--that there is a pot of gold at the end; that there is a higher power making sure that all will be well; and that the universe has immeasurable rewards for all who work for something bigger than themselves and outside their comfort zones. Let's hope all that is, indeed, right.