Thanksgiving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the thing I have have been most thankful for on our first Thanksgiving is the school holiday. The kids have just done 13 weeks non-stop at school and they are tired. This long term would be a hard enough slog for them in a familiar setting, but it has been a big change especially as they didn't get much of a holiday over the summer with the move. I'm very proud of how well they have adapted, taken on the challenge, made new friends and settled in, as it hasn't always been easy. Suffice to say this week has been a welcome break. I'm also thankful for having chosen such a friendly and welcoming neighbourhood as our new home, although when I think about it, the list of things to be thankful for is very long.

I don't think the Pilgrims and Wampanoags would
have had pink biscuits Evan.

First grade Pilgrim Fathers and Wampanoags

Thanksgiving dates back to a shared meal celebrating a good harvest between the pilgrim fathers and native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe at Plymouth Plantation in 1621. This story was relayed by the first graders at Rockenbaugh followed by some songs about turkeys going 'gobble gobble'. The kids then got to have their own little Thanksgiving feast in their classrooms, which they throughly enjoyed.

As well as celebrating Thanksgiving at school with Evan, I also joined David for his Thanksgiving lunch at Rockenbaugh - although in true David style he had his sandwiches. At Eubanks I had a Thanksgiving school dinner with Alice, which was better than it looked as it was served on a ploystyrene tray.

Alice with her Thanksgiving lunch

Turkey, stuffing, mash, gravy, green beans & brioche?

We began Thanksgiving Day with an unofficial fun run named the 'Turkey Trot', which is organised by a group of friends on the Rockenbaugh playing field. Coffee, doughnuts and run or walk as many laps as you want to do around the playing field. David set out to beat the record for most number of laps set by his friend Alex, and managed to with 20 laps (about 4 miles), it was reminiscent of Forrest Gump! We had a great time, and again the weather was glorious.

Doing the laps

Evan sports his race number

The young Turkey Trotters

Having worked up an appetite, I set out to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey, stuffing, mash, green beans, gravy (OK, I did cheat and use Bisto, my anglo twist on a Thanksgiving dinner) and corn bread. Corn bread is more like a kind of gritty madeira cake, which was an unusual accompaniment to a roast dinner as it's sweet, but it went down well with certain members of the family. For dessert I made a pumpkin pie, of course!

Rob dishes up the corn bread

Cheers!

Pumpkin pie!

Pioneer spirit for making the corn bread.