Two weekends ago, friends from church invited us to a Thanksgiving party. Now, over the past two years we have been ceaselessly trying to import Thanksgiving into New Zealand, due firstly to the great idea of having a holiday to thank God and be grateful for what He's given us, and secondly to the amazing food. Pumpkin pie hasn't really caught on here, for some reason. In 2010, two friends of ours (one American and one Canadian) introduced us to Thanksgiving. Last year we had a celebration at our place, which Hannah wrote a blog post on. This year's occasion was hosted by Carol, an American friend of ours from church (though plenty of others cooked stuff as well).
One of the most important parts of Thanksgiving is making hand turkeys. This time, we had a sort of arts and crafts table going where people could create to their hearts' content.
Good conversation is another key feature of Thanksgiving.
You might have to eat this dish before you can believe it. It's basically kumara mash with a topping of grilled marshmallows. It's classified as a main dish. Despite what you may be thinking, it was actually delicious and worked very well.
Roast chicken stuffed with things like onion, carrot and garlic to add flavour.
The "piece de resistance" (I should add in some French since Hannah's in Paris right now) was the pumpkin and pecan pies made by Carol.
Ryan demonstrates the art of carving.
The finished hand turkeys were extremely imaginative. If you recognise the two at the bottom right, they're our turkeys from last year, which we brought to demonstrate. The turkey at bottom left, made by Bridget, is saying: "Gobble! Gobble! Thanksgiving is great (except the part where I get eaten)..."
Nom nom.
Everyone was getting quite full by this stage, but I still tried some of the pies for dessert, and they were excellent. Pecan pie is most definitely worth a try if you get a chance.
Finally, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if you didn't say what you are thankful for. This year, God has graciously provided both Hannah and me with a lot of good things: a house, a car, a strong church to attend and sweet fellowship there. But I especially want to say how thankful I am to God for giving me Hannah. Her trip to the other side of the world has made me realise just how much I miss her when she's not around - she really is "bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh". Hannah is godly, loving, kind, thoughtful, funny, smart and beautiful, and blesses me each day more than I can express.
Until next time
(It seems a bit strange to sign off with Hannah's signature, but that's the tradition and there's no image for my signature...)
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