25 November 2006

An Australian Thanksgiving

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. Australians don't celebrate Thanksgiving. We never did have to worry about freezing and starving over winter, and there was no religious reason in the starting of the country. We began as a Penal colony. Free Settlers only began arriving after the colony had a chance to survive and convicts who had completed their terms decided to stay (they couldn't get back very easily).
We enjoyed the idea of giving thanks for the blessings God has bestowed upon us and have begun our own tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving the Saturday after the third Thursday in November. We experienced Thanksgiving in the US here and here. We would celebrate too - but with an Australian Flavour.
Lana's parents and a good family friend joined us for this new custom.
Today was 35C (95F) - not your typical Winter's day. Bushfires are raging in various places around the country. But we still had Turkey. A 6.6kg (14.5lb) Turkey cost $46 Aust ($34.5 US) which is a lot more than US prices. To this we added Potato Bake (layered sliced potatoes, with onion and cream with a cheese top, baked in the oven), beetroot, pineapple, tomato, cucumber, rice salad, cabbage salad and Lana's Belgian Mayonnaise.
Once the main meal was over (with enough for traditional leftovers as you can see in the photo), dessert was Pavlova, cheesecake, Pumpkin Roll and icecream. We then enjoyed a movie during the hottest part of the afternoon and once it cooled down the children played outside licking icypoles (popsicles).
All in all I think this was a successful inaugural Australian Thanksgiving.

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