Our first Aussie Thanksgiving

Even though we've been here for over a year, last year we were lucky enough to travel home for Thanksgiving.  This year, not so lucky.  Thanksgiving is right at finals time in schools here, and since I'm working and don't have a permanent job, I wasn't in a position to leave.

It was hard and depressing to be here instead of Minnesota for the holiday.  I got a chance to talk to a lot of people on the phone, but not everyone of course, and five minutes on the phone isn't the same as hours at the table eating tiny bites of pie to make it last.  I missed the cold air, Caribou Coffee, the Mall of America, and most of all just hanging out with our friends and relatives.  We tried to make the best of it; this is the recap.

Obviously Thanksgiving is not an Australian holiday, but there are lots of Americans here who do celebrate.  We started our celebration on Thursday , but because we all had to work and the kids had school, we just had a family dinner.  Turkeys cost about $80 here, so I got a big (2.2 kg) chicken instead and added sage.  We picked up some stuffing mix at a store way out in the boonies called USA Foods.  They have a wide variety of foods, mostly junk food, but did have the stuffing mix and some frozen cranberries.  I paid $40 for four boxes of stuffing mix and a bag of cranberries.  Joel was all, "What the hell?  Forty dollars for stuffing??"  I pointed out it was cheaper than a plane ticket home, and not another word was heard.  We also had sweet potatoes and green beans.  I picked up an apple and a pumpkin pie from Costco.

The precious.

Everything was delicious except the pies.  They were awful.  The crust tasted like fat held together with a bit of flour.  I couldn't eat them, and I can eat any sort of pie. Now I'm a little worried they shipped the pies from America - that was the only reason I could think of that it would taste so bad. Regardless, it was a nice family dinner.  Friday we went back to work.

Saturday, my friend Michelle hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at her house.  Michelle is from Boston, her husband is from Cali, and she invited us, another family from Orange County, a family from Marin County, a guy from Blacksburg VA and a few Aussie friends they've made since moving. Many of the people attending have kids that go to the same school as Isaac and Ruth.

The dinner was, in a word, perfect.  The food was great.  Michelle made her traditional cream of mushroom soup which might have to be a tradition at our house too.  There was turkey, brisket, stuffing, sweet potatoes, broccoli souffle, roasted veggies, fresh bread and so many desserts!  Michelle's friend Monique, who is Australian, did a lot of Thanksgiving research and contributed an amazing pecan pie and these adorable turkeys, braving Costco to get the Reeces Peanut Butter Cups.

Can you guess which one is the kids' table?

Yay!  Thanksgiving!

In Australia, Thanksgiving also includes some sausages done on the barbie.

So cute!

The kids all had a blast.  They ranged in age from 2 - 10, and they all played together really beautifully.  It was a gorgeous day, so after they ate, they spent a lot of time playing outside leaving the adults to enjoy each others' company.

Reeses and candy corn - tastes like America.

I believe they were playing cricket with a baseball bat.  Here they are running between the wickets.

The Australians in the group wondered if this was a typical Thanksgiving dinner, and I have to say we came pretty close.  It wasn't cold, and there was no football to watch, but it was crowded and a little chaotic and there was way too much really yummy food and lots of good fellowship.  We all traveled from far away to attend (Michelle lives about 45 minutes from our house- we crossed a bridge to get to you, girl!) and lots of people from different circles came together to be thankful for each other.   Big thanks to Michelle and David for hosting.