My dad is so awesome.

I made dinner for my parents tonight...a new recipe. I wanted to have them over one time before we went to Ohio, since it would be my first Thanksgiving without them. The food was...eh. It was chicken stuffed with neufchatel cheese thats mixed with cracked pepper, garlic and oregano. (Then asparagus, salad, bread...etc.) But never actually made it before. I always get nervous when trying new recipes. But everyone seemed to like it...we had a little mead and "pumpkin fluff" which is pumpkin pie filling and whipped cream mixed together. Yummy! Then we took turns playing "Guitar Hero 2" and that was fun. (My dad, the major Rush fan, was stoked about YYZ.)
But even more importantly, my dad came over to me when I was alone and we started talking and I told him how I felt...basically all the stuff I wrote in earlier blog entries about feeling torn between two cultures and I felt afraid to refer to my life Before since it might offend him and all. And he said, "I can't be offended by the truth. You were born as under one name, adopted into another, and married under your current one. You spent half your life with your birth-name but that doesn't mean you aren't still German, in a sense. You are, its in your blood. But the Scots, well, they liked to conquer and take the best out of all the cultures they came to, and adopted them into their clans. That's what happened to you. You might still be German by blood, but you were chosen and accepted by this clan, so this is your family too." And he asked if I loved him and wanted him to be my dad and I said yes, and he said then, well, there's no issue.

I also told him that when I was in Europe it felt like "home" and he actually understood. He said he lived in California for like five years, and in Vegas for 27, and California still feels like home to him.

So yeah...I was very surprised and happy. Just wanted to share.