Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays because it means good food and spending time with family and friends. You just can't go wrong. And this year was exceptional, even for such an awesome holiday, because my family and Navead's family celebrated together, complete with three year old nephew and two Persian aunts. Even better, it included Abra who came out from Seattle to be with us. It was fantastic!

To make it even better, Navead's aunts Fari and Simin cooked a spectacular day-after-thanksgiving meal which included loobya-polow, fezenjan, qormeh-sabzi, ash, kotlet, and fresh pomegranate for dessert. It was spectacular, in spite of some hesitancy regarding the ash ( pronounced "osh" which is the noodley bean soup in the small bowls). And it was fun getting to spend time with his family. Most of his aunts and cousins live in other cities, so they were some of the first extended family members I got to meet.

Of course, the week was doubly blessed by the fact that Abra came to stay and we did lots of cool things. We went rock climbing, ice skating, and saw The Fountain, which was rather half baked in my opinion. We even found time to go to the Egg & I and watch Invader Zim. It was a great week.

And last but not least, Navead and I celebrated our first anniversary. We spent most of our mini-date reminiscing about how much we have changed, and how much our relationship has changed, in such a short timeIt felt good to reflect on where we've been and how much we have to look forward to (or dread, for you marriage pessimists out there).

P.S. I finally have pictures of me rock climbing, which I am rather proud of. This is me getting worked by a tricky route. You cannot tell, but I am thinking swears. I had to get around this corner and the hold was just a little beyond my grip with the leverage I had. It took me about a dozen tries to get past it and I had to cheat a little just to do that. But I felt good when I made it to the top anyway. Climbing is awesome.