Smallest Turkey Ever

Obviously there's no Thanksgiving celebrations here but that didn't stop us from enjoying the benefits of it. You know, the hours of cooking and cleaning in the kitchen, the gorging of the food, then of the dessert. Oh yes, and somewhere in there we consider what we're thankful for. This year one of Anthony's co-worker, Eric, hosted the Thanksgiving celebration the following Saturday and it was a good turnout. I think about 20 or so people showed up, Americans and Australians. They even had the UT and Texas Tech game recorded so that was playing. I don't think there was a single Australian watching it.

The food was awesome. Fortunately they had a decent sized oven, unlike our wannabe one. I heard Eric took the dimensions of the oven and went to the store and asked for a turkey that will fit in said dimensions. Some of the traditional dishes has to be modified since you can't find some of the ingredients, such as the onion rings that go in the green bean casserole! I was heart broken at that when I went to the store a few days before to look for it. Another was the Cool Whip for the pumpkin pies. Sad, just so sad I know.

So why was I at the store trying to buy ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner? Well, we opted for a second one just for ourselves. I HAD planned on cooking it on actual Thanksgiving day but the bird was still frozen. Apparently they don't carry non-frozen birds until the week prior to Christmas. The lady at the meat counter gave me a weird look when I asked if they had non-frozen turkeys. So my only choice was to buy a frozen one. I was wondering if the turkey was going to be too big for the oven but nope! Not a 3.2 kg (7 lb)  turkey! That's a small bird!! I think back in the states I could never find one smaller than 13 lbs or so. Oh well, at least that means we didn't have weeks of leftover, just a few days. I whipped up some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole based on a recipe I found that didn't use the ready made onion rings, and some gravy. I forgot the stuffing!! They didn't have the easy made kind here so it completely slipped my mind. I'll have to look up a recipe to try it for Christmas dinner.

And that was it, our first Thanksgiving in Australia. Even the kids got a sliver or two of turkey, bet they were thankful for that!

- julie

They're Home!!

After signing our names for each of the kids, we ushered them into the black interior hired car that was covered in dog hair in less than a minute! Sete and Senna moved none stop while Chili did his usual and just laid down and stayed unmoved the entire trip.

Since it was the morning and they're newly "sprung" from the cement box, we headed straight for the off leash dog park to burn off some energy.

Senna, being the nut that she is, doesn't get to run free off leash.

We came across this big iridescent shell.

Chili is just a little....different from the other dogs.

It was kind of a cold day with no sun but nooooo they MUST get into the water.

Unfortunately there were lots of these jellyfishes both all over the sand and floating in the water. We were so nervous that one of the kids would either step on them or out of curiosity stick their nose into one.

So we head home after we let them run around and of course, they all immediately crashed! I bet they didn't sleep very well in the quarantine where there was a hundred other dogs around and probably never ending barking or the feeling of insecurity in an unfamiliar environment.

And of course, after getting bathed.

We bought a new dog bed a few weeks ago when we came across it on sale. Sete took to it immediately. We're thinking of buying another because all 3 of them seem to always try to be the one to get into it first.

So that's their first day home, which is also our first wedding anniversary. Time really did fly!! It really was nice to be one big happy family again!

- julie

 

So....How Much Does the Car Rental Insurance Cover?

The kids are home today!!! Which is also our first wedding anniversary!! So it was a nice present to be one big happy family again.

The quarantine pick up time is between 9:30 AM and 10:30 AM so obviously we wanted to pick them up as early as possible so we headed out with the plan to get there by 9:30 AM. It was a bit of a chilly morning and drizzling but fortunately we had a "hired" car so we drove towards Spotswood to pick up the kids.

Yesterday while running errands and were driving around in the hired car, I joked about driving today to pick up the kids. Anthony answered back that he should have asked for the highest rental insurance coverage if he knew I was going to drive. So today about halfway there, Anthony pulls over to give me the opportunity to drive the rest of the way. I think every nerve was on end!!!

It definitely was weird. We had a simple Ford Falcon sedan so at least it wasn't something big. Fortunately the speed limit was, at the highest, 60 km/hr which is about 37 mph. So being able to drive slow with little traffic definitely helped. It was unnerving to be sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the left side of the road. I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to make room on the road on the left, not to cross the line on the right, windshield wiper on the left hand (it was drizzling still), and turn signal on my right.

Driving straight wasn't too bad but turning made my panic bubble up a little. I'm horrible at gauging distance so with all these new things to keep in mind while driving, I was turning really slow for fear I'll clip any cars parked around the corner or turn into the incoming car's lane.

Anthony was really good as my passenger. I bet he didn't even realize he had a death grip on the armrest. =)

We made it safe and sound with my first attempt at driving behind me. Whew!!

Baby steps though. Maybe I'll get up enough courage next time to tackle a roundabout! Now those are scary!

- julie