Thanksgiving

Yesterday was our first thanksgiving. I can't tell you how many people have asked whether we celebrate thanksgiving in Australia. Thanksgiving started when the pilgrims first came to America, and the Indians helped them survive through the harsh winter, and taught them how to plant crops. Then when they had a good harvest of corn, pumpkins etc, they invited the Indians to a feast to give thanks to God. (That's probably the clean version).

Traditionally people travel to spend the day with their family, and eat a huge meal. There are very set traditional dishes that are only eaten at Thanksgiving. We had our neighbours and some Trinity people over for lunch. We had a roast turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, a corn dish, a sweet potatoe dish (with lots of brown sugar in it), a green bean casserole with deep fried onions in it, and pumpkin pie for dessert. We really appreciated our friends who came over and helped prepare all the food, and spent the time with us. Scott even squeezed in some American football in the local park with the guys between main meal and dessert.

Confirmation

On Sunday, Scott and I were accepted as members at our new church - North Shore Chinese Christian Church (http://www.nsccc.org/). As part of this process, I also got confirmed. Although I have been a Christian for about 17 years, I have never been confirmed, for various reasons. I was very happy to be confirmed at our new church. (P.S. This doesn't mean I have left the Anglican church - we have dual membership.)

Dante and his five pumpkins

Halloween

OK. So I am nearly a month late on this blog. Halloween was a huge blast. The kids loved it. Dante had a parade at school, and I was amazed to see how everyone had dressed up, and the creativity, including the teachers. As soon as the kids got home from school they put on their costumes. We have heaps of kids on our street, so we had a group photo, then off they went. The group quickly split into two, with the older kids, mostly boys, going together, and then the younger ones. I stayed with Grace and Angie, and entrusted Dante to a neighbour. Angie dressed as Ariel the mermaid, Dante as Indiana Jones, and Gracie as Minnie Mouse (I lost the ears and gloves - opps!)

The setting was so beautiful with all the autumn colours. People had gone to a lot of trouble to decorate their houses, and some also wore costumes. Nearly every door the kids knocked on yielded candy. There were lots of groups of people out in the streets which created a very festive atmosphere.

A few houses stand out in my memory. One where the lady had set up a table and was serving hot apple cider, and marshmellows to roast on the fire. Another was a lady who was sitting on a chair outside her front door. She had a huge spider next to her, and was covered in spiders web - you couldn't even see her face. Around her were witches and other horribles. The third one was a man who answered the door...well, the picture is below. He looked like a hunchback with blood painted on his chin. Angie was too scared to go up to these ones, but Gracie was a bold as brass. She wanted to know whether the blood was real, and where it came from. The man said it was from his neighbour...

Afterwards our street group met at Jody's house for dinner. Pizza all 'round. Overall, the kids had a ball, and decided they want to stay in Chicago for more halloweens. Unfortunately Scott missed it because he was away for the week. Though halloween was fun, I was also glad to see some of the scary decorations taken down, and start to be replaced by 'holiday' decorations. Halloween was such a big thing here, with such a big build-up, that there was no way we couldn't let our kids participate. For them, it was a fun time of dressing up and getting lots of lollies. Next year - I really want my brother Peter to be here. I think he could come up with some creative ideas!