Thanksgiving 2008

Australians don't do turkey. And, by and large, they have no idea why Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.

First, I had a turkey challenge on my hands this year with my decision to host a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for a few close friends and Steve's three children.

Last year, Steve and I were busy preparing to travel to the States in December to celebrate the Christmas season and to meet our new grand-daughter, Breighlynn, who was just six weeks old. But I pondered the idea of a Thanksgiving meal anyway. But after realizing that there are no turkeys available, just the occasional legs, wings or roast, I gave up the idea. And I was too tired, too busy, and a little depressed at my first Thanksgiving away from my own family. So I scrapped it.

This year I planned ahead, and with no holiday excursion in sight, dove head first into preparing my first Thanksgiving celebration in Australia. We invited 14 people, and I called my local butcher.

"Could you get me a 20-lb turkey in a week or so?" I asked him.

"Well..." then silence. Thinking that perhaps he didn't understand pounds, I explained that it's roughly 10 kilograms.

He hesitated, asked for a few days to look around and said he'd get back to me. When he did, he said he could only find one about four kilograms...about 10 pounds. To an Australian, that's a big bird. I said I'd take it, and asked about another, but at $30 per fowl, I decided we'd make do with that.

I also discovered that there's no such thing as Crisco, Jello-brand, mini-marshmallows, French Fried Onions or Cool Whip. I improvised, except for the Crisco, which I had just enough left to make pie crusts, and I ordered other things from a USA Foods shop in Melbourne. No Cool Whip anywhere.

Guests arrived, bearing mashed potatoes and gravy, pre-dinner nibbles, wine and soft drinks, and settled into watching me scurry around the kitchen. It lifted my heart to hear laughter, Aussie yarns, and good-natured fun. I had to laugh though as I pulled the beautifully browned bird out of the oven and handed it over to Steve to carve. He'd never done that before. His daughters came over, looked at the turkey and asked, "What is that?"

Because all the fixings couldn't fit on the table, I lined up all the food on the bench (kitchen counter) and everyone served up buffet style. Hardly a scrap was left on the turkey, but there was plenty of other food. I was gratified to hear "mmmmm," "this is so good," and requests for recipes of all the strange food to an Australian palate.

I read a history of Thanksgiving for our guests, and Steve read George Washington's proclamation of Thanksgiving Day. Afterward, we followed my family tradition of everyone around the table giving thanks for something in their lives. One of the guests said what a great idea to have a nation set aside one day a year to give thanks to God for his blessings, remember where we've come from as a nation, and personally, and that our prime minister should take notice.

Our guests stayed for about five hours, enough time for darkness to fall and Steve to turn on the Christmas lights that he painstakingly put up a few days earlier. Of course, we meandered outside into the cooling night air after a very warm, humid day to enjoy the lights and watch the stars come out.

Menu: Pre-dinner nibbles of celery stuffed with cream cheese, curried stuffed eggs, various shelled nuts, and toothpicks crammed with pieces of pickle, cocktail onion and cheese, (all courtsey of Denise), crackers and various cheeses supplied by Steve's son, Luke, turkey, stuffing with heaps of veggies, some apples, and dried cranberries thrown in, mashed potatoes and gravy courtesy of Anne, candied yams (a recipe from my step-mom,) Grandma Wallenborn's pretzel salad improvized with raspberry Jello and fresh raspberries, green bean casserole with French Fried Onions, bread rolls, whole cranberry sauce, sweet corn on the cob and pumpkin and apple pies, a novelty.

I have to say that despite the absence of my family and the strange, non-autumn weather, this was one of the best Thanksgiving celebrations I've ever had. I am thankful for new friends, a new country to live in and experience, and the love of a good man who has taken me into his care. I truly have a lot to be thankful for.

Some photos:


Table for 14. We had one no-show, so the extra setting was for the "unseen guest." Steve and I combined my six-seat American dining room set that was shipped from Battle Ground (on the left), and his eight-seat one. This photo is before the carnage.


My microwave oven wasn't big enough to help thaw our 10-lb. turkey, so Steve came home with this surprise on Thanksgiving morning, a very big microwave/convection oven. Ours was about 1/4 the size of this one. Nice!

Steve carving his first turkey.

Some of our guests. From left, Pam and George Lingard, the top of our white-haired pastor Tom Buscombe, his wife, Anne, Rose and andrew Berkin, Luke (Steve's son), and Steve's daughters Tegan and Stephanie.

Group shot minus Tegan (didn't want her picture taken) and Stephanie (taking the picture), then me, part of Steve, and Denise Jones in bottom right corner.

Andrew and Rose, Denise, Anne, George.

Tom, Pam, and Conrad Jones.

Tom liked his first pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream.

Our Christmas house, lit up on Thanksgiving day. Notice my blooming geraniums at the top of the steps? It's nearly summer.

Looking toward sunset.

View from the west. Steve did a beautiful job.