Thanksgiving with the Expats

In an effort to celebrate Thanksgiving at the right time, we waited until Friday, when we could sit down at the table at the same time, in absolute time (whatever that is), as our loved ones back home. Actually, no one here had Thursday off.

Tyler, a full-timer at AGSM and his girl Melody helped to plan. Here is an excerpt of the invitation:

Dear Friends of America,

Every year, millions of our countrymen give thanks for the day the baby Moses descended from heaven and presented Abraham Lincoln, leader of the Pilgrims, with a magnificent tryptophan laden bird, the Turkey, so that he might tranquilize the Indians and their leader, the she-devil Pocahontas, and capture Plymouth Rock. Once again, the time has come to celebrate and remember the cranberry sauce spilled by our forefathers at the first thanksgiving…

Where:

Elise and Antonio’s house. Narrabeen- 195 Ocean Street. It’s on the beach, so bring your floaties.

We dutifully packed our swimmers, rented a car, and headed up to Narrabeen.


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Elise and Antonio were wonderful hosts, despite having suffered earlier drama involving a broken oven. On the one hand, Australian oven repairers don't quite understand the drama of having a broken oven on Thanksgiving. ("Thankswhat?") On the other hand, you can actually reach an oven repairman on Thanksgiving, and have a prayer of having a new one delivered.

Anyway, the turkey came out fine, everyone brought yummy food, and LOTS of wine, and all was very merry. I brought asparagus, because it's plentiful here this spring, and my mom's spinach and artichoke heart casserole, which I finally realized is really fancied-up creamed spinach. I especially liked having the chance to take a walk on the beach, with Harvey, Tyler and Melody's black lab puppy (full grown, but still a puppy). I saw Orion upside down, and the coastline stretching towards Sydney, and I marveled at how here it was, Thanksgiving, and I wasn't freezing.