I was invited by Erica, my small group leader, to a Thanksgiving lunch with her family. Instead of having a traditional “lots of cooking to do” meal in their home, they went to a buffet Thanksgiving lunch at the Hotel Bethlehem instead. Lunch was good. I had oysters, shrimp, squid salad, turkey, gravy, mash potatoes, grean beans, cranberry jelly, butternut squash soup, baked brie, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake and coffee.

Later in the evening, I was invited to have Thanksgiving dessert with Tom and his family. Tom is a Malaysian, originally from Batu Gajah. He, his American wife and their two teenage daughters go to the church that Marvin used to attend. I was quite reluctant to go, it was dark, it was raining, and I don’t like driving 65 mph on the highway in the rain at night. But it was Thanksgiving after all, a very big deal here, and it’s nice to spend time with another Malaysian. So I drove 30 minutes to Easton, met up with Marvin and followed his car to Tom’s place. For dessert, I had a slice of chocolate pecan pie and more coffee. The pie was the best I had this Thanksgiving season.

Quite an eventful Thanksgiving though not as exciting as last Thanksgiving.

Trivia about Easton: The real Von Trapp family (The Sound of Music), after leaving Austria for the United States, had their very first concert in Easton, PA.