Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year as summer in Seattle comes to an end, and fall starts up, the inevitable approach of the Christmas season can't be missed. The weather turns. Its cold, and even more rainy. The days get noticeably shorter, and did I mention the cold? And the rain?

Tallows Beach - Our favorite surf spot!

However October and November here in Australia are, as can be imagined on the other side of the world, quite different. October came and went, Halloween with it, without even so much as a single piece of candy being consumed by either Krissy or I. (Hard to believe, I know.) Somehow, November itself seems to have completely run away without even so much as a goodbye either. The days are getting only longer here, and the weather is becoming quite hot. Its been about 35 degrees Celsius the last two days here, something like 90-95 Farenheit.

Despite the lack of a run-up, and with November flying past, I did manage to enjoy Thanksgiving in the classic American way, surrounded by friends, more food than could possibly be consumed, and an overwhelming sense of contentedness.

Sadly Krissy had to work on Thanksgiving night, however we were able to take a moment in the middle of the day, and enjoy a wonderfully large and delicious piece of carrot cake, the closest thing to a Thanksgiving treat we could find.

With her away making us some much appreciated income, in the spirit of the holiday I invited a couple of roomates to enjoy a home(hostel?)-cooked feast! There are a handful of other Americans in the hostel we have been staying in, and it seems we managed to round up every other one in Byron Bay to come join our feast, along with the handful of other friends we brought along, in my case a wonderful friend from Sydney, and another from Italy.

Without breaking too far from the backpackers mentality of spending as little as humanly possible on food, so as to preserve the little funds we all have for travel and adventures, I got to work.

We had a lovely meal consisting of Roasted Chicken (not much Turkey here...) with gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls, and topped it off with sweet-potatos praline! We even splurged on a few Tassie (Tasmanian) beers! My roommates were quite impressed that I was able to manage 5-6 pans on the stove at once, and in the span of 15 minutes whip together quite a feast!!

Our Italian roommate Luig... errr Nick. :-)

It was great to have a big table full of food, and everyone filling themselves like they have never seen food. Some at least, I am sure, had forgotten what food that's not Raman noodles looks like! There were a lot of smiles around that table, and I we finished the night with a bit of chocolate. It was really nice to share the tradition of thanksgiving with people who had no idea what it was about, to explain the story, the traditional foods we grew up eating, and share a pretty darn good feast! By the end of the night I had the classic post thanksgiving look... slumped back in my chair, a hand resting on my over-full belly, and huge smile on my face!

It may not have FELT like Thanksgiving leading up to that evening, as we missed the run-up, the excitement, the planning, and all of that. It was however a really nice night, and it was great to take-part in something that reminded me so much of home, in a time and place that is so different!


So, I guess its officially the Christmas season. I'm sweating profusely, and spent the morning at the beach swimming in the crystal clear waters of Byron Bay. They don't have pine trees here, and I am quite confident Christmas will be at least as strange as Thanksgiving. Will they decorate a palm tree with lights? I have already seen a big display on a house with Santa on a surfboard being pulled by dolphins... the tradition of Christmas that I grew up with is extremely out of place here, however if Christmas night comes, and I feel half as good as I did at the end of Thanksgiving, I am still looking forward to it immensely.

I miss everyone back home, especially at this time of year.This will be my first Christmas away from the family, and I am sure that Christmas morning will have a lot of mixed emotions. That said, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world!