A Quirky Thanksgiving

So I turned 25 this past week. I still remember thinking during my teen years how people who were 25 were so old. In a sense, I still feel that way, but I don't. If that makes any sense.

One of the great things about this Thanksgiving break is that two cousins, Faris (18) and Nadia (16), came to visit from Houston. I remember when these two kids were born. They were both born in NY, and moved away about 14 or 15 years ago to Houston. Still have wonderful memories of them when they were little. But neither my sister nor myself had the opportunity to spend much time with them over the past several years. So this Thanksgiving break was really special having them around.

One thing that I noticed is that when my sister was talking to either Faris or Nadia, she would slow down her voice as if talking to a little child. I think part of it is that she and I both still see Faris and Nadia as little kids. Most of our memories of these kids are along these lines:




and:


So it's no wonder that my sister and I have it in our heads that they're still small children. But today, they look like this:

So all in all, had a wonderful week. Of course since my family is really quirky, it was not the typical American family thanksgiving involving turkey and football. Because nobody in my family particularly cares for an oven cooked turkey on Thanksgiving, we instead went and got a bunch of steaks and grilled them... a dinner that all of us enjoyed far more than we would have enjoyed turkey. I have to say, that steak was pretty damn good.

In addition, my family loves buying random stuff from Costco and experimenting with it. The latest addition to our gadget collection is this thing called the vitamixer or something like that. It's a blender, plain and simply. But it's more than a blender, it's a hard core blender. Apparantly this thing can be used to make all sorts of funky fruit juices, hummus, whipped cream, smoothies, etc. So, this weekend, we made all sorts of funky fruit juices, hummus, whipped cream, smoothies, etc. Some things came out better than others. Most of the fruit and vegetable juices were awful. And the hummus tasted like a foot. But the whipped cream was really good (especially since we ate it with strawberries), and some smoothies weren't all that bad. This pretty much sums up the attitude about the vitamixer at our house:

So while Faris and Nadia were in town, my sister and I took them to the city to hang around and enjoy the wonders of New York. At least as much as you can get in on a freezing day downtown. So Sophia and Nadia got a decent amount of shopping done in the Soho boutiques, while Faris and I grumbled and joked around. Got my fix of Lombardi's pizza, which I have to say is amongst the best pizzas in NY. Lombardis is the oldest Pizzeria in America, located on Spring St. and Mott in Little Italy. Great pizza. Here is all of us at Lombardis:

After Lombardis, we had to go get some good Italian pastries and dessert. We went over to Ferraras, also in Little Italy. Great little cafe with some really great desserts. Of course, we went slightly camera crazy, and in one odd shot, my sister got a picture of me looking like a sex offender and/or serial killer. I have no idea where that smile came from, all I was thinking about was the cake in front of me. It does look appetizing doesn't it?

And believe me, that cake did taste as good as it looked. See:

Yes, the chocolate tooth is staged. I'm not really turning into a pure southerner.