Thanksgiving!

I cannot get this text to go above this photo which is driving me dilly, but anyway! So, after creating one massive table for the 18 adults, and two smaller tables for the 10 children, the festivities began! There were only about 6 South Africans (if you can call us that, let's rather just say Africans!). Some of the Americans brought turkey decorations and serviettes which made it feel a little more Thanksgiving-ish.

And this is the food! Everyone had brought their favorite side dish for Thanksgiving
and may I add that they were ALL delicious! 

One of the kiddies tables - King Arthur, Aragorn and Belle joined by a friend

Feasting!

The thankful guests! One thing that just amused me greatly was
that no one seemed particularly fussed about the turkey - it's
the sides that appear to be everyone's favorite!

I was continually thankful for the blessing of this house.
It absorbed people - everyone melted into the rooms they felt most comfortable
in - here are some kids doing some Thanksgiving
colouring-in in the inside/outside room.

Some kids (and an adult!) watching a dvd towards the end of the day

Adults having fun on the trampoline

Pudding time! Awesome deserts - my apple pie rocked,
will have to post a recipe!

Outside time!

And to round off the evening for the kids we did sparklers,
although in Cape Town how can one wait for dark?!
Isn't Belle just gorgeous?!

So there you have it! I'll post the recipes - delicious food and fun to celebrate something else from another culture. Such lovely people too, with incredible callings on their lives - more to come on that too!

Turkey Talk!

Thanksgiving, 2010. For Americans it's a big deal, one fo the few times they get to make a four day weekend out of public holidays - it's a longer break than Christmas. And from all the movies/books we've been exposed to, yes, everyone really does try and get home for the holidays.

So when M married K, we really felt for her being here for this important holiday, and so offered to host her very own Thanksgiving dinner at our new place. She and another good American friend L did the planning and organizing with a few chirps from me! It was meticulously planned - everyone contributed money to the turkeys, brought traditional sides and puddings and that was it.

So, the first part looked like this -

So this is us...the morning of Thanksgiving, K, L (the true Americanas) and I, prepping the turkeys we'd been defrosting for two days. Can you tell how smelly they were - classic photos! But they really were smelling disgusting. We phoned Braveheart's father later in the day and got him to come and smell them as they came out the oven, and thankfully our nightmares of having to go out and buy cooked chickens melted away! They were perfect!

Next installment tomorrow!