Thanksgiving 2009

It's always a tradition to spend Thanksgiving break with the family. And like always, a Thanksgiving dinner awaits. In the past, my eldest aunt from my mom's side usually handles the hefty turkey. However, this time around, my cousin Olivia tackled the daunting task.

It's a time of merriment -- other than that of Christmas -- one especially to be shared by family members. Oftentimes, Thanksgiving is celebrated at my home, but for the past couple of years, the holiday celebration's been held at my cousin's. Well, it makes the turkey job much more convenient.

There is a story to be told about this stunning, golden-brown fowl. Originally, roasting the turkey should have taken around three to four hours. To be safe, a plug-in timer was inserted (if you look closely, it's the small red contraption near the top) that pops out when the cooking is completed. Well, a timer's pretty useless if it doesn't tell the chef when the roasting is done. For some unknown reason, the timer was jammed and never popped out from the turkey breast.

Instead, another half hour passed before some investigative work was done. So it turned out our suspicions were correct and that the timer was indeed stuck. Fortunately, the turkey still turned out to be a success. No harm, no fowl... foul. Sorry.

Other than dinner, this was the first time I was able to visit my little niece, Waverly, since early this year. Right now she's about a year and half in age, at the pinnacle of walking and speech-training. Truthfully, I don't know too much about babies or child-psychology in general, but for a 1.5 year-old kid, she is pretty darn intelligent.

How many infants at that age can tell the difference between a circle, square, and a triangle?

How many infants at that age can turn on/off and adjust the volume for a stereo?

How many infants at that age can identify apples, strawberries, bananas, and watermelons? Mind you, this includes the actual fruits, photos of fruits, or hand-drawings of fruits.

I'm sure there are plenty of babies out there who can differentiate many items, but there is one thing that I was seriously, seriously impressed with...

Chinese family trees are notoriously famous for intricacy. It's a huge hassle to remember what each relative stands for. For example, there aren't just aunts and uncles like in the English language. Each aunt on the mother's side and each aunt on the father's side has different titles. Likewise, uncles follow the same trend. However, spouses of every relative also have different titles. An aunt's husband on the mother's side has a different title than that of an aunt's husband on the father's side. Also, generation gaps play roles, as well. In such a case, it is possible for one to have an uncle younger than oneself. Then again, that may be an uncle in English terms, but in Chinese, it's a whole different title. Each cousin has a different title, great aunts, great uncles, great-great aunts, godmothers, nephews and nieces, etc. individually holds a different title. It's a brain-buster.

Back to Waverly, what I'm most impressed with is that she could point out titles to many relatives that were at the Thanksgiving dinner. For example, her mother and father, both uncles (i.e. my brother and me), great aunt (my mother), great uncle (my father), both grandmothers (different titles), grandfather on her father's side, and great-grandmother. Honestly, I'm not even too familiar with the titles. To be outdone by a 1.5 year-old, either I'm mentally disabled or this little girl has serious brains.

I wonder how she will turn out in ten, fifteen years? Hell, I'm not even the parent and I'm wondering.