A Rather Nebraska Thanksgiving

Last weekend Patrick and I traveled to Nebraska for a much-needed holiday.  Somehow we fit in quite a lot and still managed to not do much of anything. 

As usual, my mom made an amazing 25 lb turkey with all the fixings...  green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn bread, cranberries, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, brownies, cheesecake, and a ton more.  

My minuscule contribution was to put together the veggie, relish, and cheese platters.

Unfortunately that's as far as I got before my hunger got the best of me and I shoved my camera aside to dig in.

On Saturday, once we had consumed our fair share of leftovers, we decided on teppanyaki for a change of pace.  

My parents had recently installed the flooring for the restaurant, so the owner was kind enough to bring us some complimentary Japanese Ramune sodas for all of us to try.  

The gentlemen were given the strawberry flavor while my mom and I tried the melon.  Apparently there are over 35 different flavors that range from cola, blueberry, mango, lychee, and kiwi to curry, kimchi, wasabi, and octopus.  There is also a "mystery" flavor which I'm curious to try...

The key to Ramune sodas are figuring out how to open them.  There is a marble lodged inside the opening of the bottle, and you need a special plastic piece that comes attached to the cap in order to release it.  Then the marble rattles around inside while you drink it.  It looks cool since the carbonation bubbles latch onto it and roll around with it, and bottle is specifically designed so it stays within the neck of the bottle.  I found plenty of how-to videos on Youtube, but this one is particularly amusing because the gloved hands made me think of a ninja:

For the remainder of our meal, we continued to be wowed with all the usual teppanyaki tricks that never seem to get old...  the smiley face fire, the egg in the hat, and everyone's favorite, the onion ring volcano:

During the break, we also took advantage of my family's unlimited movie passes and went to see Hugo and J. Edgar.

I went to Hugo thinking it would be a futuristic story about a boy and a robot.  While the movie wasn't what I expected, I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it to children for its whimsical cinematography and to adults for its heart-warming and engaging plot.

J. Edgar, on the other hand, was very much the opposite of whimsical.  While I found the historical details compelling, the plot itself was a bit wishy-washy and the drama was over the top, focusing too heavily on his troubled personal life/relationships.  It seemed more of a caricature rather than a portrait of J. Edgar Hoover's life.  But props to Leonardo DiCaprio for a solid, yet predictable performance.

The rest of the holiday was dedicated to family-bonding time.

This includes hanging out with Hurley, my parents' beloved golden retriever, who is still grappling with his alpha-male complex.  Aside from lounging on one of my parents' leather recliners, this is his other favorite position to be in:

I will say, now that he is 3 years old, his sweet side is beginning to show a bit more...

The highlight of the week was getting to spend time with Akio, our 2 and a half year old nephew, and Kahlyn, our 6 month old niece.

Kahlyn, we discovered, is quite the little noise-maker and she has a particular aversion to men (except for her Dad).  The second my dad or Patrick tried to hold her, she would erupt into a fit of screams, which would immediately subside once she was in her mother's arms, much like a faucet turned on and off.  The trick was to position her facing out so she couldn't see who was holding her... as evidenced by her rather tranquil state in these pictures.  Little does she know...

Unlike his baby sister (though he was painfully shy at first), Akio warmed up to his Uncle Patrick in no time:

And over time he warmed up to Aunt Monica as well, to the point where he was reading me my bedtime story, Atonement, which for all of you who thought it was a WWII-era star-crossed love story, it is actually about a dump truck and a boy named Akio.

Other highlights of the vacation include a midnight black Friday trip to Wal-Mart which I barely got out of alive, watching the Nebraska vs Iowa football game and the Notre Dame vs Stanford game (which I won't elaborate on), a trip to the "boat" (Argosy Casino), and pizza from my favorite pizza place ever, Rosie's Pizza.

All in all, a rather Nebraska Thanksgiving.

oo,