It's Thanksgiving... Bring on the Pounds!

It feels like ages ago already, but our Canadian Thanksgiving in NZ was a blast! The surprise birthday party and fun run were only PART of the fun.

We had some serious family skype time. We spoke with members of my family separately, but we chatted with Lowell’s entire family at once- except for Marti & Lando:( . They just plopped us on the table as they went about their business, and after 2 lovely renditions of ‘Happy Birthday’ (one for me and one for Dad T), they entertained us in shifts.

Carmen (our eldest little niece) was completely enthralled with the process and sat her cute little rear in front of the computer virtually the entire time. I bragged about watching ‘Enchanted’ while putting around the kitchen fixing Thanksgiving dinner, and Carmen insisted on seeing a sample of the princess movie. She’s just so cute, we couldn’t deny her, so I held my laptop up to Lowell’s laptop and observed Carmen watching the song and dance in utter captivation. When the song was over, she wanted more, but Uncle Lowell and Auntie Julie Renee mustered up the courage to deny her this request (plus my arm was getting really sore).

On the weekend, Lowell and I also spent like 3 hours at the grocery store, and another few hours pureeing pumpkin to make our very first pumpkin pie FROM SCRATCH. I have never in my life made a Thanksgiving dinner before- at least not by myself. I’ve helped Mom with the low profile stuff like the dinner rolls and salad, but I’ve never taken charge of the full deal… UNTIL THIS YEAR! Lowell did some manual labour (rolling out pastry dough, shoveling the pumpkin out of the shell to puree it, and lugging the giant table over from the lodge), but otherwise I did the entire thing BY MYSELF.

The presentation was pathetic, but at least it tasted good. We are kind of lacking in the ‘classy china dish’ department, but inappropriately giant pots, tacky plastic bowls, wrinkled tin pans, and mismatched plates and cutlery seemed to do the trick.

I’m not concerned. I have YEARS ahead of me to polish the presentation.

Our adopted NZ family- the Pounds- joined us for dinner. It was their first real Thanksgiving dinner as ‘Thanksgiving’ doesn't exist in NZ. Andrew & Kay dined with us right away, but the kids couldn't join us 'till a little later. The Pounds are such an animated and delightful family, and so easy to get along with. All in all the entire experience was a SMASHING SUCCESS and I soaked up every second of it.

L to R: Johnny, Joanna, Josh, Kay, Andrew

And now, as Thanksgiving is obviously a time to be thankful, I’m going to start pouring on the cheese.

Lowell and I are so thankful for this time in our lives. We have real actual LIVES here in NZ. We have real FRIENDS, an adopted FAMILY, a church, a house, a car, and a JOB…we’re productive members of NZ society. WE EVEN PAY TAXES FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! It’s very surreal and doesn’t come without its challenges, but we are so thankful for this opportunity and will try our darndest not to take it for granted!