Canadian Thanksgiving

For Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, October 14th, we met up with some friends at the Lower Seymour Conservation Area in North Vancouver to work up an appetite for our turkey dinner. Helene, Chloe, Ben, Finley and I went for a hike around Alice Lake, while John, Stuart, Rosanne, Aydin and Gemma went for a bike ride.

Alice Lake

Helene and Finley sharing a joke

Chloe, Helene, Finley and Ben

Alice Lake

All that walking is tiring!

Afterwards, we went to Stuart and Rosanne's house for a delicious Thanksgiving feast and accompanying fun, music, and great company.

Chloe, Finley and Gemma

Yum!

Clockwise - me, Stuart, Gemma, Finley

Gemma dancing with John

Finley enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!

American Thanksgiving

On Thursday, November 22nd, we headed across the border to celebrate US Thanksgiving with Donna and Terry and assorted family and friends.  This was our third Thanksgiving with them - they had also kindly included us in 2009 and 2010!

Some photos from before the feast...

Table settings

Team effort

Our lovely hosts with their granddaughter Etta

Kelly stirring the gravy

Thanksgiving dinner...

Scrumptious buffet

Eating for three

Customary whole-table photo

Decorating cookies the next day (Black Friday)...

Donna and Etta

Want some batter?

The 4-day weekend went by in a lovely blur of great company, delicious food, shopping trips, singalongs, pregnancy discussions, and lots of relaxation/ reading time.  On Friday the guys did some firewood chopping and then went clay pigeon shooting at a nearby range, and that evening Angharad arrived to join in the festivities for the rest of the weekend.  On Friday night, Kelly and Janae prepared a delicious seafood chowder for dinner, and on Saturday night Ben and I had our turn and made potato-leek-coconut-lime soup.

Some Sunday photos...

Janae, Etta and Kelly

Me (31 weeks) and Janae (35 weeks)

We headed back to Vancouver on Sunday afternoon, via Trader Joe's and Wee Ones Re-Runs in Bellingham.  The latter is a fantastic kids' op shop/ thrift store... I think we've found a new place to add to our Bellingham to-do list every time we cross the border!

THANKS, Donna and Terry, for another wonderful Thanksgiving!

American Thanksgiving

This year we had American Thanksgiving dinner at Shonna and Joel's home on November 26th.  We hardly took any photos, but here's one of the turkey and the hosts!  :)

Canadian Thanksgiving

Last Monday, October 10th, was Canadian Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to get TWO Thanksgiving dinners this year... and we still have American Thanksgiving to look forward to next month! (That will bring our total to seven Thanksgiving dinners in 3 years!)

On Sunday, October 9th, we went to a surprise 50th birthday party for our friend David. His amazing wife, Deborah, not only managed to organise a successful surprise party right under his nose... but also coordinated Thanksgiving dinner for 45 people without him catching on!! It was an amazing spread... turkey, ham, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato dishes, mashed potato, salads, apple pie, cupcakes, pumpkin tarts, fruit salad, ice cream, etc!

This is a bunch of old fogeys who turned up at the party to sing an 18-verse version of "Davie Boy" (to the tune of Danny Boy), interspersed with a couple of amusing skits. (I'm not sure if posting this photo on our blog breaks the "no Facebook" clause certain parties insisted on. Insert "any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental" disclaimer here.)

Birthday boy David and surprise party host extraordinaire Deborah...

The next day, Monday (a public holiday), we went to Kelly and Janae's home and enjoyed another amazing Thanksgiving meal. This time it was less traditional food - we had the best beef short rib stew ever, Yorkshire pudding, roast parsnips and squash, mashed potatoes, self-saucing caramel pudding, and ice cream. Yum yum yum!
Making the Yorkshire pudding...

Polishing off the scrumptious stew...

Teaching Etta about the kind of stew we have in Australia...


We love Thanksgiving!!

American Thanksgiving

On Thursday, November 25th - the day after we arrived back from Australia - we set off to Mt Vernon in Washington state, USA, to celebrate Thanksgiving at Donna and Terry's home. (If it seems like we celebrate Thanksgiving a lot, you're right; this is our fourth one in less than 2 years!!)

Here's the view from Donna and Terry's lovely log home on Thursday - check out last year's blog entry to see the contrast!


It had nearly all melted by the next day though.

This year Terry had something a little different to carve... not a turkey, but a turducen! In other words: a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a hen!!!

It was quite the event, as you can see!

Pre-dinner activities...

Etta getting some attention from Kelly and Janae (her parents) and Jim

Smiles from dad and daughter

Lighting the candles

Dan, Ben and Justin playing Ticket to Ride (Ben's early Christmas present)

Tables set (complete with Fantales, freshly flown in from Australia!)...


Absolutely scrumptious food...

Ben, Troy, Braden, Lisa, Gretchen, Donna

And the eating of it!

Troy, Terry, Donna, Lisa, Jim, Suzanne, Janae, Kelly, Dan, Gretchen, Justin, me

Afternoon walk before dessert...


Dessert...


Justin leading a singalong...



On Thursday night, Ben drove home as he had to go back to work on Friday. After work, he crossed the border again in time for us to go late night Black Friday shopping with Justin, Kelly and Janae. Some of us had been shopping earlier in the day too. The Black Friday daytime crowds weren't as bad as I'd been picturing, and between the two trips we got a few bargains!

Here's a photo of Terry unwrapping the obsidian and carved antler knife his kids got him for an early Christmas present (he had talked a lot about it after seeing it in a shop the previous day, and it had been the source of much amusement the previous night as we came up with ideas for subtly getting him to reveal which of the shop's two display knives he liked best!)...


Just chillin'...


We stayed until Sunday afternoon - and, as always, had a wonderfully fun and relaxing time. Great food, great festivities, great friends! Thanks again, Donna and Terry!