Thinksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We just got back from Cleveland today and are tired from a day of traveling, but not too tired for our adoring fans!

But first the most important things - we saw Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 on Monday.  It was a day of celebration. Amit completed his presentation for his astrobiology class on "Entropy and Life: Does Life Feed Off of Negative Entropy?"  It was a grueling process, but he completed the task valiantly.  This marked the last presentation he'll have to do in a graded class.  "I'm super-excited," he said.  "From here on out, its all about doing things without receiving rewards (aka good grades) for hard work, but instead getting that special feeling of accomplishment."  That's basically what being in academia is all about - convincing yourself that what you're doing really is useful.

After his class ended, Marinda and Amit went to the mall to secure their tickets to the new Twilight movie before heading to a fancy dinner at Panda Express (Amit's reward for being such an awesome husband).  The food was amazing, but it turned out their rush to get the tickets early was a little unnecessary.  There were only 5 other people in the theater besides the two of them.  Why?  Because it was a school night, of course.

So what did they think about the movie?  "It was perfect!  I loved it.  They did a great job representing the book," said Marinda.  "I thought everything up to and including the wedding was tacky and boring.  The rest of it was entertaining and good.  It was pretty well done and I think the next one will also be good...for....me."   "You mean good enough for you," was Marinda's response to that last part. (Dad, that's for you!)

We went to Amit's parents' house on Tuesday for the start of Thanksgiving break.  The highlight of the week was naturally Thanksgiving day.  Surprisingly enough, the Misras do a full-out all-American Thanksgiving with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie (or for this year pumpkin cheesecake).  Add in Marinda's family recipes of sweet potato balls, cherry cheesecake and Grandma Koye's salad and we had a veritable feast!  On top of all that, another family that is predominantly vegetarian came over so Amit made spinach lasagna for them.  Anup (Amit's brother) prepared the turkey in a traditional style.  Oh, and the turkey weighed 16 lbs.  For 5 meat-eaters.  Yes, there were many leftovers.  Amit's Mom was actually still in India visiting relatives, so that left Marinda as the hostess for the evening.  "I was so stressed out," Marinda says, "but I was sure to make a point of saying that Amit made everything, while I 'supervised.'"  For their second Thanksgiving since getting married, it has been mentioned that it was kind of amazing that they pulled off such a successful dinner!

Well we don't want to bore you.  And we want to get back to the fleeting remnants of our Thanksgiving vacation before the cold, dark, dreary life of Seattle in winter starts up again tomorrow :-)  On a fun note, Durandal is really loving his new loose hay, and so are Amit's allergies.  Now if only we can teach Durandal to eat it from the top instead of trying to dig a hole from the side - avalanches have been known to happen!