Thanksgiving in the city

I got a little ambitious this year. Not content to just let one of our fine American holidays pass us by, I decided to host my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner. I mean, it really doesn't matter if your kitchen is tiny, you're in a foreign land with hardly any familiar ingredients, and you've never.even.thought. about making a Turkey before, riiiight?

Well, surprisingly it all turned out really well. We invited our friends, the Grace family, that we first stayed with when we landed in Auckland. All 9 of us fit quite comfortably outside on the balcony - even if we froze our behinds off in the cool breeze! They were at least good sports about it.

So, here is my documentation of 'the feed':

Their sweet potatoes here are called Kumera. I tried to find only the orange kumera, but a few yellow ones slipped in there. (They also have purple kumera.) They don't have real marshmallows here, but luckily Jon spotted some in the 'lollies' (candy) aisle in the dish-it-yourself-bulk canisters. The Grace family LOVED the marshmallows and brown sugar on their familiar kumera. Funny though, they didn't really go for the orange ones. They ate all of the yellow ones first. :)

This is my tiny kitchen table, which we moved outside for seating. I had NO counterspace to work with and Jon had to move his office desk into the kitchen to serve as a buffet counter.

Right before I started preparing the turkey, I called my mom in a panic! Everything I read online warned against stuffing the turkey and the risks of foodborne illnesses. I certainly didn't want to make my guests sick! As she always does, she calmed my fears, told me to stop being silly, and move on. I Love You Mom! One of the sites mentioned putting the turkey on a bed of carrots and celery and onion for more flavor. Mmmm. A nice crunchy bed for the turkey.

And here it is, ready to go! I couldn't find kitchen string or skewers anywhere to keep the legs together, so she's a little immodest.

She fit! Once I saw the turkey in the pan I panicked again, fearing it would be too big for my little microwave size oven!

Part 1 of the spread: (Don't ask me why I didn't remove the foil from the meats so the finished product was shown! I was in a rush!)

Part 2: (Kumera, Mashed Potatoes and gravy. I don't think they cared for the mashed potatoes. We had a TON leftover, which is weird for us since that's usually the first thing to go at our family dinners!)

Hungry kids! Destiny (13), Aniva (9), Manessah (6), and Elijah (5). Their oldest boy, Skye (17), is not pictured because he came after his touch rugby practice.

Jon, Dean, and Dolly.

Everyone trying to get warm after we froze them outside. The little kids loved running outside on the balcony to see what color the neighboring Sky Tower was lit up - my favorite was the rainbow. And the big kids were so awesome - they cleared the table and did the dishes while I packed up all of the leftovers! The great thing is, this is common over here. Their kids always clean up and do the dishes...without being asked! Good kids. Great family!

Us. See my tiny kitchen in the background? Yep, that row of cupboards is pretty much it. The mini-fridge and oven are all below counter on that wall. Oh, and how do you like Jon's beard and long hair? :)

The kids had fun taking pictures with the camera. Elijah loves to be the spotlight and jumped in any picture he could.

And that was our Thanksgiving. A huge success, if I do say so myself!

Happy Thanksgiving!

City living

A few days ago we had a killer sunset so we headed outside with our cameras to try to capture the majesty. This will give you an idea of our view out of our apartment. It's hard to tell cause it's dark, but yes, that water just past the buildings. We live right on the harbor and sit and watch the big boats come in all day and then get treated to a sailboat parade around 5 pm every night. It's spectacular!

Sooo excited!

So, it's no secret that I'm not the best at staying in touch, but I try my best. Before I left the states my wonderful friends threw me a little going away party (THANK YOU ABBY!). It was so great to see some of the girls from high school and renew those friendships. We laughed about old times and our silly immature ways, then talked about motherhood, being a wife, and our upcoming move to New Zealand. We marveled at the technology that would allow us to stay in contact with each other - except Christy. You see, Christy is probably one of my most motivated and driven friends. I love her passion and determination, but there is hardly time for technology with her. Until now! We finally convinced her to get online, if not to stay connected, at least to grow her business. And she has (with many thanks to Abby, I'm sure, who promised she would set up the site for her, and who did a fabulous job!)

Anyway, if you're in the Ogden area and are looking for a midwife, Christy is simply the best. You can find her here:

http://www.ogdenmidwives.blogspot.com

Even if you aren't in the market, but are expecting a little one, her site has some excellent articles about pregnancy and pre/post-natal care. Check her out! I'm so proud of all of my friends and for all they have accomplished - they inspire me!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

I just saw this on the Church's website. What a wonderful reminder. Being away from the States around Thanksgiving time has not been easy for Jon and I. I am grateful for this reminder and for the happiness that can be found anywhere and everywhere we look in this world.

Check it out:

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Verbage

I know I have so much to catch up on from our travels these past 2 months, but I'm toying with the idea of making that a separate blog because we literally have 2,000+ pictures. I don't know yet. I think I just want to keep this blog as a record of our daily life. So, to start that out, here are a few kiwi words I love so far, especially with the New Zealand accent:

• Choice = "It's choice to have you here, mate."
• Sweet As (or anything *as) = I guess the ending of this phrase is just assumed...sweet as anything you could imagine I guess. But everything has an 'as' on the end, for dramatic effect. Windy as, fat as, fast as, mean as, etc, etc.
• Pardon = As in, "I beg your pardon" or "please clarify". Warms the cockles of my heart to hear the youngsters say it rather than "huh?"
• Mummy and Nan
• Daddy and Poppi
• Reckon = "I reckon..."
• Fellas = applies to any gender here, it's more of a way to recognize a group
• Yous = as far as I can tell, it's a combination of You Guys. We're often greeted with "How're yous getting on?"
• Take-Aways = not many sit and eat restaurants here without paying an arm and a leg, just quick grab and go stuff. There are a million take-away places everywhere!
• Cheers = sometimes a "thanks", other times a farewell
• Mobile instead of 'cell' phone
• Petrol instead of gas
• Heaps = a lot, tons, many. And since they talk with their eyebrows here, it's always accompanied by a slight headnod and raised eyebrows.
• Feed = Food, Feast, Let's Eat, etc. As in, "We had a huge feed." or "Let's go get a feed."
• Mate = Friends; applies to guys and girls.
• Mean = Awesomeness. As in, "Oh man, that concert/movie was mean!"

And because I think every post should have a picture with it, here's me at the beach of Mt. Manganui near Tauranga, where we spent a few days before moving into our apartment. The beach had HEAPS of sea shells! I was really missing the little nieces and nephews and knew they would have just loved it there!

Sneeky Peeky

Lots of you have been asking for some pics of our adventures so far. We literally have thousands of pictures to go through, but here are a few sneak peaks:

Touring the countryside of New Zealand:

Devastation in Samoa:
Heaps of glorious sunsets:
Snorkeling with stingrays and sharks:
Getting in touch with our roots:
Lots of relaxing on warm tile beds:
Endless photo ops:
And lots of this:

More to come...eventually. ;)

Settling In

We have made it to beautiful Auckland and have been consumed by apartment hunting. I'm proud to report that we have found an amazing place on the 27th floor with beautiful views of the harbor and city. Now all we need are some visitors to help us fill it! :)

We are doing well and can't wait to be in our own place and get back to a semi-normal life. I have a million pictures to post of our month-long cruise, but those will take some time to get to. We miss being at home and all of the traditions around this time of year. We're loving the warm weather and plan on heading to a beachy/resort town this weekend before we move into our apartment on the 15th. Jon heads out to Chicago on the 26th, so I'll be a lone woman in a foreign city (pray for me. pray hard.) for a little bit.

I miss catching up with everyone's blogs and can't wait to devote some time to that, and to revamping my own blog. :)

Cheers.

oh, ps. NZ has the best candy ever!!! Pretty sure I entered sugar heaven tonight with little delights that are textured like circus peanuts, but are banana flavored and shaped. MMMM. :)