This blog full of pictures that I have taken, portraits how my Thanksgiving was with my family. On my mom’s side, we had traditions and used Thanksgiving as a way to say how grateful we are for one and another. When I was with my dad, Thanksgiving was used more as an excuse for friends and family to come over to our house and watch football. This site isn’t to show how Thanksgiving is supposed to be celebrated, it’s just to share how my families do Thanksgiving. In fact, there’s no right or wrong way for any holiday. Every family has their own way of doing things because every family has different values. It’s like each family has their own culture, and this is my way of showing you, how my families culture is unique.

I interviewed my biological dad and my mom individually. I asked them both the same question.     “why do you celebrate Thanksgiving the way you do, and can you go in detail on why so?” they both,  in their own way of words, said that it’s how their parents use to do holidays, it was all about family time. “It brought family near, and friends closer.” – mom

So I think Thanksgiving is teaching us about the relationship between American culture and kinship. I agree with what my biological parents had to say, Thanksgiving traditions are passed down, but the main reason why any holiday is celebrated is to have an excuse to see your loved ones, who you may or may not get to see as often anymore. Or even just simply have an excuse to tell them how much they mean to you.

all Saturday and Sunday I had to work, but after work, I met up with my girlfriend and her family; and we watched the lighting of the tree at Oakway Center. I lived in Oregon my whole life and i never been to this before. it was pretty cool it was like the celebration of Christmas time officially starting, and it was good to see her family again because it been a while since I seen them.

Dad didn’t like any of the stores at the mall, so mom took us to Cabelas since we know dad loves this store. Kainoa and I couldn’t care less about this store so we had fun making jokes about the mannequins and the toys they had there. I think we spent an hour there, and they didn’t buy anything.

after Thanksgiving, we went to the movie theater. Mom has been dying to see the new Fantastic Beast movie, and since I was home, mom thought it was the best time to watch the movie. Plus everyone was shopping because it was Black Friday, so we knew the movie theater would be close to empty (which it was). the movie was pretty great, afterward, I talked to mom and dad into letting us shop a little since we were already at the mall. it was our first time shopping on Black Friday.

After a while, I left dads and went back to moms house. There, Kainoa was waiting for me to get back so he could play games with me. We use to play games all the time at grandma’s, but for some reason this year we didn’t play any. So Kainoa wanted to play Uno and Jenga, we even tried a new game called headband (kind of like charades). it was a good time, it made me realize how much I missed him and being with my big family.

at this point in time, we cleaned up the kitchen; and we’re all just hanging out because we can’t be in our room while we have family over. So we’re all just hanging out waiting for some family to leave so we can go back to our room. I’m not trying to sound lazy, our family stayed for the whole Thanksgiving weekend so we still got to see them for the next few days. We would have gone outside but it was raining.

After dinner, us boys usually have to do dishes, but for some reason this year I didn’t have to do any chores. I think it’s because I went to college and my dads either proud that I’m in college, or its because I basically left home so the boys are “up next” for house chores. That’s my little sister bragging she doesn’t have any chores to do. In my family, kids have to do most of the chores around the house. which is why as a kid we hated thanksgiving because of all the extra dishes.

Since Naiya and I already ate at grandmas, we only took pictures of the dessert because that’s all we had room for in our stomachs. Mom made so much food, probably the most I seen her made ever. this families thanksgiving though, they aren’t really any traditions we have. it’s just an excuse for the family to come up from Hawaii or Samoa and hang out with us. I guess if I had to say a tradition we have, its to bless our food before we eat it.

After grandma’s, Naiya and I went to our dads house to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. It’s hard to balance two familys, but we try our best to make sure we see everyone. this year our cousins came to have dinner with us. but besides them, i have 3 siblings on my dads side. Kaiden (17 years old), Ashton (14 years old), and Ave (7 years old). I think Ave was playing with toys during this picture, but that’s my family on my dads side.

This is all of us, my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and my siblings. Mom wanted a picture of all of us because its rare for all of us to be together at once; now that I go to college and mom and dad moved out of Junction City (where grandma lives). its hard for all of us to be together. these are the only family we have in Oregon so moments like these we have to cherish.

a few years ago we started doing the wishbone challenge after we eat Thanksgiving dinner, this year it was mine and Kainoa’s turn to compete for the wish. In order to get a wish, you have to be the one with the bigger piece after you two break the bone. This year Kainoa won and he wished for Fortnite skins… either way, it’s a fun thing to do between us, three kids.

Since the dinner table is too full to eat at, we eat in the living room on tv trays. I have been eating on these tv trays since I was 5, so I’d say it’s become a tradition to eat on these. Grandma makes sure the tv is off so we can eat like a family still, and catch up with one another. We go around and say our thanks to each other, and we each say what we are thankful for this year.

This is a picture of some of the food grandma prepared for us. I forgot to take a picture of the rest, but imagine mashed potatoes and gravy to the right, and turkey in that white dish. This year she didn’t cook any ham, which I was fine with because I’m not that big of a fan of ham. And this food is endless; if anything looks low, the next time you go into the kitchen grandma already stocked the table back up. Typical grandma Shirley for you. Love her.

This is my sister Naiya (15 years old) helping out grandma finish up with the mashed potatoes, and my brother Kainoa (11 years old) cleaning up the rest of the dishes. At this point in time, grandma and grandpa were telling mom and dad about their hunting trip from the day before. So this was a rare occasion where she left us 3 kids in the kitchen.

Since I was 5 we would go to my stepdads moms house for Thanksgiving. here’s a picture of her finishing up dinner for us. Usually, grandma doesn’t invite us to come over until she finishes cooking. But we always come a little early so we can help out as much as we can. Grandma Shirley does almost all the cooking and preparing, grandpa’s usually in the living room watching the news talking stories with mom and dad; while us kids try to keep busy until food is ready.