A Family Tradition

For many years, the entire Hong family (my mom's side of the family) has gathered together each year to celebrate Thanksgiving. The number of people gathered has increased by leaps and bounds over the years. Of the seven children my grandparents had, five of them and their families live in either Orange County or LA County. This year, we reached an all time high of 53 people.

Most of my cousins are married, yet they still manage to go to their in-laws' Thanksgiving celebrations earlier in the day or even on Friday. Whatever the arrangement is, everyone makes it to the Hong family dinner. Thanksgiving is the only time I get to see some of my cousins. It's great to catch up with them and it's always a challenge to recall all of the little ones' names. They change so much -- it's hard to recognize them!

Last year, Derek and I celebrated Thanksgiving in Arizona with his Mom, Uncle David and Aunt Penny. This year, Derek's mom flew out to join us for Thanksgiving. We thought about going back out to Arizona again this year, but just starting my 37th week of pregnancy, I was advised by my doctor to stay close to home. It was great for me to be with my family and with Derek's mom.



This year we had dinner at David and Amy's house. It's probably the only home now that can fit us all in comfortably. As usual, it's a great big potluck with turkey, ham and all the fixings. I made creme brulee and pot de creme for dessert. Pictured below is Derek carmelizing the sugar on the creme brulee.

We typically have a short service before or after the big feast. This year, Derek was invited to share a devotional. He shared about the healing of the 10 lepers and how only 1 returned to thank Jesus. It was a great reminder of how we ask God for so many things -- big and small -- and so often we forget to thank Him aftewards for what He has done. We were given a few moments to think about the things we are thankful for and then we shared them with one another. As always, we talked about how thankful we are for our oldest uncle who worked hard to get the entire family to the U.S. and also for starting this Thanksgiving tradition. We are all also thankful that we come for a long line of Christians.

Overall, it was a great evening. The only thing that would have made it better is if my other sister and Dad were there as well. Maybe one year, the entire Kim family will be able to get together for the holidays...