Our First Kiwi Thanksgiving...

Thursday, 22 November – & belated Thanksgiving wishes (since we are posting them several weeks late)

Kiwis don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. So, today was a regular school day for both boys and Liam even had cricket practice after school. Both boys shared about what Thanksgiving is with their classes. Liam said his class thought pumpkin pie sounded disgusting.

The first thing I am thankful for is that Colin had a terrific day at school. He said he had two groups of friends that invited him to join their recess games. He was thankful to “have a group of friends to play with and a back up.” I think his teacher had a class talk about including everyone so nobody feels left out. Whatever she did, it worked. Colin has hope again.

No turkey this year because our rental kitchen in not quite equipped for that. We made Chicken Marbella instead. It only takes one dish and we have that. But we had the most luscious pumpkin pie, “creamier than crème brûlée,” according to Doug. A pie that we made from scratch, meaning we started with roasting a pumpkin, no cheating with canned pumpkin because we couldn't find it anywhere! It was sweet with no sugar added. And we also couldn't cheat with a Pillsbury crust. We were extremely proud of our pie. Liam and Colin helped purée the pumpkin, which was much appreciated because we had to purée by hand. No shortcuts this Thanksgiving.

We, of course, made vegetable animals. Anyone who grew up at Thacher in the ‘70s will remember making them under the pepper trees on the Pergola as our parents cooked. We made creations out of candies, like gumdrops and marshmallows, toothpicks, gourds and other veggies. These animal creations became the centerpieces for the Thanksgiving meal. We continue this tradition with our boys for yet another generation. I wonder how many other present and former Thacher fac brats do too?

We had been planning on bringing our animal creations as handmade pets to Pet Day so they could do double duty. But at the last minute we remembered someone at schooling telling us that making artwork out of food was disrespectful to Maori customs. So our animal creations just hung out with us in the shoebox apartment for Thanksgiving.

We send all our Yankee friends and family warm Thanksgiving wishes. We are most thankful for all of you.