Happy Thanksgiving!
On this Thanksgiving Eve, may I offer heartfelt thanks for the many blessings I am enjoying. I am so happy to be back in Hawaii!!! Mom and Dad, who arrived this morning from another island, are with me at my apartment in Kaimuki. Mom says Grandma would have loved my place; it's so full of light and lots of breezes. One great feature of this second-floor apartment is that all four walls are the exterior walls for the building (originally a single-family, two-story dwelling), and each wall is loaded with windows. Most of the windows are opened. I have hung giant sarongs as makeshift curtains, for some of the windows. They are nearly transparent, letting the air flow unimpeded, but they have beautiful hues, which provide a soft wash of color. In honor of my parents' visit, the refrigerator is stocked with all kinds of Korean goodies -- four types of kim chee, for example. Sliced-up Korean "duk" -- mochi, in Japanese, or rice flour cakes in English -- to be added to...