A Kiwi Thanksgiving

We had a bit of a struggle trying to have a Thanksgiving dinner so far from home. I mentioned some of the ingredients I couldn’t find to my kids and Jennifer and Jon sent this: Now we had the cranberry sauce and the pecans for pies (along with delicious graham crackers for evening snacking)

Then we received a package from Rivka with decorations, plates and napkins and I hadn’t even thought about that:

After that, we discovered that turkeys were on sale last week for about $30 less than they usually are so a 12 lb. bird was $60 instead of $90 (at that point that seemed like a good deal!)  We went to an American store in Auckland for corn syrup and Stove Top stuffing. We used a Kiwi yam which they call Kumara and had to cut up large marshmallows since they had no miniature ones for the candied yams. They don’t have canned pumpkin so I baked a pumpkin and puréed it so I could use it to make pies. Then we invited the Higgins and the Chaddertons from our Branch and introduced them to a traditional Thanksgiving feast.

We had to explain what candied yams are and cranberry sauce and stuffing. Buddy took time beforehand to explain where the holiday comes from and when it was made an official holiday. We had a delightful time sharing our traditions with these wonderful friends.

P.S.- Kiwis usually don’t wear shoes in the house so even though we tell them they don’t have to take off their shoes, they seem to be more comfortable doing so. And though the drinks may look suspicious- we didn’t bring them home in a paper sack- they’re just sparkling grape and apple juices. 

Kia Ora! Elder and Sister O’Neal

A few weeks in Review

In looking back at photos for the last few weeks, I can’t come up with one theme so I’ll just explain a few. My sewing machine broke again so I’ve only been able to get things ready by cutting and ironing. However, we were able to go to Auckland today and get another belt for this old machine. The repair guy advised us to fix it and give it back to the city before it breaks again since the last belt should have lasted longer than two weeks (I agreed!). Actually that will be ok because Trish, the sewing teacher at the school, offered to let me borrow a machine from there. Yeah!! I’ll take her up on that offer next Tuesday. Here’s a pic of the crazy sewing room at the school:

I think I’ll still sew with this old machine until I can get to the school on Tuesday.
A few months ago, the Branch President in Coromandel asked me to help an elderly friend with his genealogy. He knew he had some Jewish ancestry but couldn’t find anything past his paternal grandmother. With a lot of help from ancestry.com, we managed to get him back 5 generations into England including copies of census reports, marriage and birth certificates. He was so excited! For his “day job” , though he’s retired, he fixes chain saws. I managed to get a picture of Elder O’Neal visiting with him after Church last Sunday where he took us down to his shop. The ceiling is barely shorter than Buddy so he had to duck at the 2x4’s. This kind of place is to Buddy what the sewing room is to me- mess with so many exciting possibilities.

And then, I had to include this wonder of nature that I found on my walk today:

The most wonderful tree! I can just see a family picture with all the kids sitting or hanging from the branches. Where was a tree like this when all my kids were at home??  It’s been a wonderful couple of weeks!  Kia Ora, Elder and Sister O’Neal